Classic & Vintage - Have you guys seen these bikes? Copper and wood content

http://www.cycleexif.com/ant-bikes-copper-and-wood

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/FORDSVTPARTS/Bikes/ant-bikes-wood-copper-1.jpg

Very pretty but you have to wonder how well they would hold up and how flexible they would be.

Did you read the comments in the link, Steve?

Did you read the comments in the link, Steve?

Nope, not yet. Someone sent me the link on another forum and I just posted up here real quick in between phone calls at work.

I'll go look now.

Edit- Yup, read it. It's gorgeous but seems to be an awful lot of time and effort for a wall hanger.

From the comments:


AntBikeMike: I should have used larger wood dowels. These are 1" in Dia to create that antique look, but I should have gone with 1 1/4" and with all steel chain stays. I said I would never make one again, but looking at these pictures makes me want to do it again ;)

I'm sure it wasn't all for naught. Mistakes usually make good lessons.

It gorgeous but seems to be an awful lot of time and effort for a wall hanger.

A very nice wall hanger nonetheless.

There was a company at NAHBS last year that was doing maple laminate hex-tubing with stainless lugs. Name escapes me at the moment, and I don't have any photos in my uploaded albums from the trip. The light color wood against the stainless fancy lugs was quite the impressive look.

Seems a couple of years ago you saw a lot of stuff like this, especially the bamboo with carbon fiber tape at the joints.
It was going to save the earth, according to the hipsters.

I'm all about wood too, as you know, but save it for the correct application.

Next thing, they will try to make airplanes out of the stuff!

There was a Hickory Bicycle in the 90's ....the 1890's....their claim to fame was a bike that was less "Vibratory"

Scariest brake setup I've ever seen - even for a show bike. Beauty, but at what cost?

Ah, found the photos, bikes were "Sylvan Cycles (http://www.sylvancycles.com/Cover.html)" Wonder if they'd do a dark stain / copper plated for enough $$$. I enjoyed talking to the guys at NAHBS, seemed like they were in it for more than being "different" or "green".

^ Interesting bike, but it reminds me too much of a Ticonderoga no. 2.

http://inlinethumb46.webshots.com/8813/2689276690068014369S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2689276690068014369NCeAwh)

so do you clean that bike with ketchup like revereware?

Those bars will bend and snap soon.

I do like the Road Demon bell under the seat.

Those bars will bend and snap soon.

Probably not, since no one will be riding the bike.

Probably not, since no one will be riding the bike.

Right. And even if someone did I doubt that both bending and snapping would be happening.

^ Interesting bike, but it reminds me too much of a Ticonderoga no. 2.

I'm more partial to the Mirado Black Warrior look.

Scariest brake setup I've ever seen - even for a show bike. Beauty, but at what cost?

Can you put a price tag on beauty? Besides its a fixed gear, it really doesnt even need brakes if one where to actually ride it.

I remember years ago when i first started at the shop I'm at now, Mike brought that exact bike in to show off. I was ignorant as to who Mike or ANT were at all at the time, so it was just some guy with a mind-blowingly beuatiful bike that he just built himself. I could hardly believe it, having not been exposed much to artisan bikes at that point.

It's funny, having always remembered that bike and the mystery of the man who built it, to now make that connection to someone ive now met a number of times.... and through a random forum post is crazy to me. Thanks so much for the link... just closed a long term open door deep in the back of my head.

Ah, found the photos, bikes were "Sylvan Cycles (http://www.sylvancycles.com/Cover.html)" Wonder if they'd do a dark stain / copper plated for enough $$$. I enjoyed talking to the guys at NAHBS, seemed like they were in it for more than being "different" or "green".

The Sylvans...the tubes (I guess you'd call them that) look like the pencils I wrote with in first grade...Ticonderoga Jumbo No. 2.

I think they did a much better job of it back in 1898...plus you could get em mail order!
http://www.sterba-bike.cz/media/produkty/648/1_thumb_Hickory%20USA%20(1).jpghttp://www.sterba-bike.cz/media/produkty/648/1_thumb_Hickory%20USA%20(7).jpghttp://www.sterba-bike.cz/media/produkty/648/1_thumb_Hickory%20USA%20(6).jpghttp://www.sterba-bike.cz/media/produkty/648/1_thumb_Hickory%20USA%20(13).jpg
1898 Hickory Saftey Bicycle