Get woody with it!

It has recently come to my attention that not only is steel real, but wood is good. Here are a couple examples from real life encounters.

As all bicyclists with a penchant for internet surf-biking know, bamboo bicycles are the new eco-friendly, two-wheeled kids on the block. The slightly popular artist known as M.I.A. even has a song that I believe may be related to bamboo bicycles. Here it is-

　
Now here’s a wooden bicycle this kid made when he was 16 (just think of all the play he'll be getting now that he's got this sweet ride to roll his obnoxiously brilliant ass around on).

Here's a more functional looking woody.

Mahogany cycle by Sueshiro Sano.

But does bamboo qualify as wood? Some would say that the bamboo plant is a grass, not a tree. Perhaps it's both? Let me look into that, I'll get right back to you because, let's face it, you have an inquisitive mind and you want to know. The great thing about bamboobikes is that if you happen to be cycling in a bambooby area of the world and you break your frame, you can just heft your trusty khukri (or equivalent) chop some bamboo and replace your chainstay without skipping a beat.
　In quaint sidewalk cafes (avec accente, sil vous plais) and coffee shops across our great land the debate about whether or not wood or grass is the superior bicycle-building material may be heard and/or engaged in, but may not be avoided. Wood may be affected by moisture — as steel is affected by temperature. For example, as all of us cyclistos and istas are aware, Young’s modulus of expansion for Tange 7071 cro-moly, blah, blah, blah. This makes cycling on Mars a jarring experience, whereas Venusian cycling is noted for its soft liquidity. Morning wood is often expanded and filled with fluid, whereas by noon it has regained it's more typical girth. Here is a shot of the morning wood I am faced with most every morning.

As you can see, it is rather crude and blocky but awkwardly functional. This wooden bicycle rack

was created by this man,

with some assistance by yours truly, back in our halcyon years (we were both well over 16, unlike our young woody-exhibiting, over-achieving genius previously mentioned). As the exceptionally perceptive of you may have observed, it doesn’t really fit that well in my garage, therefore I will plan on wittling it down to size with my recently purchased multitool.

This will also allow me to get some practice with this tool prior to my higher profile home improvement project — installation of a rotating bookcase that allows access to a wooden pole for sliding down to my garage for quick access to bicycling action! Perhaps I will also try to create a wooden bicycle to impress my coffee housemates. So hop on that woody and get to it!

Here's an event (October 8th) that could be considered a kind of Omaha triathlon because it involves bicycling, beer drinking and football watching.  It's sponsored by Lucky Bucket, and it's got 2 ride options- a road/paved trail with brewery tour and an off-road ride at Swanson Park with an after party with NU vs Ohio State (ahhh!  Pretty spooky, eh kids?)