Bonobo Plywood Bicycle by Polish Design Student Stanislaw Ploski

Pretty innovative concept – bet that could make a comfy commuter. Looks like something from Ikea. I could see this as a really practical design for mass production – you could build an entire size run out of the same plywood tooling by machining the same blanks to different sizes and adjusting the position of the bolt on bits.

Best looking concept bike I’ve seen in a long time. Definitely a hint of BMX about it with the peddles, grips and fork, yet also practical for those city commutes!! I’d buy one.

Plywood could very well make sense. Who defines what makes sense?

A bad copy of the Waldmeister.
http://www.waldmeister-bikes.de/en/

I’d argue that it’s a big improvement on the Waldmeister because it can be mass produced much more affordably. The wood has a small fraction of the Waldmeister’s machining and hand finishing and no post-mold bonding and is very scalable for a broad size run without multiple curved plywood molds. Other than the headtube piece, all the other forgings (I’d assume not welded for mass production) would be the same regardless of frame size. This could be a very inexpensive RTA kit or big box store item and weigh less and ride better than a cheap metal frame. This could be a nice $400 commuter, but it could also be a sub-$150 bike. Either way, it isn’t a high-dollar boutique bike – it’s practical.

With twice the plies of a skateboard deck, this thing would be a solid beater too. From a customization standpoint, anyone with access to sandpaper, stain and poly could get a professional looking refinish or color change for under 15 bucks – same price as a crappy looking rattlecan respray on a metal frame. Spruce it up with a woodburning pen. Lots of possibilities.

@Andy – if this bike were executed poorly, I could see standing and mashing the pedals with my 200lbs would be a problem. I’ve had some metal frames flex, sag, twist and drop chains under a good “mashing”. That being said, this could easily be engineered to be stiff enough for a commuter bike. I don’t think anyone’s going to try to run this in a crit – it isn’t going to replace anyone’s mtb, downhiller, bmx or club racer. It is what it is, and it could be good really good at being that.

RF-pressed curved plywood isn’t that different than carbon fiber. It’s a composite fibrous material that’s formed to shape under heat and pressure with resin. Like carbon fiber composites, its performance can be tuned with fiber (grain) direction, species (material type), material layup, resin type and cure cycle. In this design, the lower beam could be built for stiffness and the upper for compliance.

Over the past 20 years, my career has gone from bike shop to a curved plywood components manufacturer to industrial automation to now aerospace composites/”advanced materials” (with a lot of CNC machining exposure along the way.) I’ve seen the limitations and possibilities of a lot of engineered composite materials (including wood).

I’m really impressed with this concept because unlike most student design projects, this could be put to practical use on a mass scale at a reasonable cost and could be a better ride than a lot of budget commuter bikes out there. Both of my kids learned to ride on a plywood Skuut bike (and it still looks brand new) – why wouldn’t I ride plywood too?

such haters some of you. this is a STUDENT’S design. i’d say this student did a really cool thing here.

“…too similar to simply say they came up with the same idea?” That’s hardly a fact. There are significant differences between the two bikes.

@AlexK.
The waldmeister bikes are made of solid wood, this one is made of plywood. Even if these bikes look similar, they differ more, than any common bike on the street 🙂 I would love to test it & buy if the price will be reasonable (not 13 K EURO ;).