Wood and Carbon Bike by David Stubbs-Last year, Dave Stubbs caught onto the idea of making a bike for his three-year-old. Inspired by wooden bicycles he saw online, he's since built three bikes by hand (and is now working on a fourth, a mountain bike with 29-inch wheels).
Bicycles need to be both flexible and rugged. "People forget how strong wood is," says Stubbs, who works with carbon fiber and wood at his surfboard company. "Straight wood would be quite heavy."
Instead, he used carbon fiber, bamboo, ash, and purple heart wood after consulting with an engineer to determine where the main stresses would be.
Stubbs' bike was a finalist in Design Indaba's Most Beautiful Object in South Africa 2013. He says he gets a lot of attention riding the wooden bike to work. He's sure to turn a lot more heads riding it at the Cape Argus Cycle Tour, a 67-mile bike race with more than 30,000 entrants, this weekend.