I stumbled on this bike today, and I couldn't let it pass uncommented-upon.
From the article (with some spelling corrections, but otherwise I will not spare you the richness of the translation):
This bike comes from the idea of Daniele Quintaba, an Italian industrial design student, and his father, who is an expert wood craftsman.
Their project for the Carbon Wood Bike combines an ancient material – wood – with a contemporary one – carbon fiber. This combination allows them to give the bike a smart looking design and at the same to make it lightweight and strong.
The production is strictly artisanal and small scaled, no complex machines are used, only the manual ability of the artisan gives birth to these bikes – which weights is around 9 kilograms – by using ash and mahogany bent layers in combination with carbon fiber ones; as well as the handlebar and the saddle which are carved from a sandwich of that woods, the frame is very lightweight and strong.
First, no seat tube? There's gonna be flex in that open frame every pedal stroke.
Second, there's NO adjusting the height of that seatpost.
Third, just thinking about sitting on that saddle causes a pain in my taint.
It's a beautiful construction. It's a piece of art. But it's no more a bicycle than a ceremonial halberd is a useful weapon.
This is further proof that carbon frames on their own aren't pretty.
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