Bikes are inherently pretty good for the environment: If everyone in the U.S. living within five miles of work started commuting by bike only one day a week, it would save as much pollution as taking a million cars off the road for a year.
A new design concept from Dan Gestoso Rivers tries to make bike production more sustainable by swapping out a standard metal frame for wood and using components made from recycled soda cans.
Like Ikea furniture--and like a somewhat similar project called the Sandwichbike--the wooden bike is designed to fit in a small box, and a buyer could put the whole thing together using an Allen wrench.
Gestoso says the bike will be as strong as a typical aluminum frame, but it's clear that it's better in some areas, like the energy used to manufacture the frame.
The design uses sustainably grown wood everywhere possible, and the remaining metal pieces will be made from recycled aluminum or, potentially, metal recycled from discarded bikes.
Found on http://www.fastcoexist.com/3027716/this-bike-is-made-from-wood-and-recycled-soda-cans
Sorry, I'm a product designer who's getting tired of hearing about wood frames that are Sustainable. The best way to make a "sustainable" bike is to make it out of steel. Steel lasts 10 times longer than any wood frame. Requires less maintenance, is more precise, and can also be repaired and recycled, and re-fabricated into countless other things.
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