The picture above is what it seems. Designer Jurden Kuipers has introduced a wood and plastic kit for building a bicycle cruiser. Given the looks of the parts this is surely just something that is art and we don’t expect the actual bike can be ridden, but it certainly looks nice.
It is also proof of concept that in the future it might be possible to print out a bike – or at least order a kit – and after the “some assembly required part” have a complete bike.
Back in the early 1990s there was the now largely forgotten Los Angeles one-hit wonder alternative band School of Fish, which in its one-hit “Three Strange Days” offered the lyric: “And Johnny Clueless was there, With his simulated wood grain.”
Well, Rob Pollock of New Zealand is no Johnny Clueless, and he probably never heard of the song nor the band. But he’s spent his life painting faux wood finishes on various things, a process he calls “woodgraining,” which is now taking to bike frames after customizing his son’s bike. Those looking for a wood-esque bike can send their frames to Rob’s Woodgrain Bike Frames, where Pollock paints them individually over seven to 10 days.
The process, which can run about $1500 US, involves stripping the old paint, where he sprays a light colored base, and then uses a multi-step process to hand brush the actual one-of-a-kind woodgrain pattern in darker colors. Clear coat is added, along with a protective epoxy coating. The result is a bike that looks like wood.
(Video of the woodgraining process after the jump)