Reader’s Rides: Handmade in Portugal, Mud Cycles Wood Bikes Are Built From Scratch

But really. Please stop building bikes out of wood.

Wow, I love the design. Stunning.

@adam. Why should people stop building bikes from wood? Is it harming you in any way?

Modern gluing and wood treatment techniques open up the possibility to build bikes that are lightweight, durable and affordable. In many other areas we trust in these qualities of wood. Stunning furniture, adorable boats, even sailplanes – nothing wrong with wood itself at all.

The bike community seems to be quite a bit conservative regarding new materials – for a good reason. The first aluminium frames? The first carbon frames? Frame builders had to learn allot before frames could be build that combined these four qualities. During this learning state quite a few frames were produced, that didn’t match even one aspect.

Not expecting “perfect” bikes, I actually enjoy seeing different approaches to frame geometry and materials as they inspire others. That is João’s contribution to the bike community. Thanks João! That is part of the evolution of bikes- always was.

A naked, triple crown look with a bigger Head lamp would kill it. 4/5 😉

We’ll now that the self appointed experts have chimed in to proclaim wood bikes dumb, I guess that whole matter is settled with the industry.

They’re beautiful bikes. If they ride and function nice, who cares what they’re made of.

I am very suprised to see this article. I live near Maastricht and last year while walking on the old roads of this beatifull city, I stumbled on a wood bike. It was laid in front of a shop. The bike caught my attention because there was a lot of people taking pictures and looking at it. In a region like this (Limburg) where bikes are loved and intensively used it’s no suprise to see all that interest in that piece of art. I spent some time examine the details of the bike and how the wood and the normal parts of a bike were assembled together. I would love to ride it but could not find the owner.
As a Portuguese, I am happy to find that that bike I saw that day was the result of a Portuguese artists.

Wood bikes will never be a big segment of the industry, so it’s not exactly reasonable to measure their success by how they “do in the Industry.” Wood manufacturers are selling to very small section of the market. It’s curious, though, all the panty knotting over wood bikes. Again, if they work for the buyer and the builder makes what he or she wants to off the bikes, who cares what the naysayers think?

@Nuno Pinto I doubt you saw this Portuguese bike. The changes are much bigger that you saw a Bough Bike http://www.boughbikes.nl It is a Dutch product that is already sold for more than 2 years now worldwide, it is designed by Jan Gunneweg. This Portuguese bike just looks very similar.