A Fixed-Gear Bike You Can't Abuse
By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 3, 2011 9:00PM
We can appreciate the beauty of a well-tended bicycle, even fixed-gear cycles (even though they belong on a track). But this bike from designer Seth Deysach is something you can only ride when the weather cooperates. This bike's frame is made from black walnut.
"You ride this bike to a backyard barbeque and people are gonna stop and say, 'What the fuck is that?' " Deysach told us by phone. The genesis of this bike is as follows: Deysach spent his high school and college years working and managing bike shops, with a detour to culinary school -- "I was not cut out for the nut-job lifestyle that high end cooking demands," he said -- Deysach became bored with working in bike shops and decided to become a furniture maker.
Through a lot of trial and error, Deysach developed his furniture making skills and was invited to participate in a design show last year called Object Society. He decided to build a bike made from wood. Problem was, even though the first bicycles were made from wood, modern attempts at fashioning a bicycle from wood aped the designs of steel tube bike frames, which make them prone to failure and breakage.
So Deysach put his furniture design skills to use and came up with a design that is both beautiful and functional. The bike is made from 2” x 2” sticks of wood, bridal jointed and glued with a few necessary fasteners to hold it together just like a chair. "On a purely aesthetic level, I love to see the exposed joinery," Deysach wrote in the spec sheet he sent us. "it's just honest construction, no hidden crap."
The bike geek in Deysach decided to go high end for the components: Phil Wood hubs and spokes, Paul components break lever, White Industries drivetrain, Chris King headset, Mavic rims, WTB saddle, Thomson seatpost, and leather handlebar tape. The bike has been on display at Merchandise Mart. Recently, it started to become an internet meme among fixed-gear aficionados. "Some female fixed-gear fan in the Far East found it online and it just started to pick up steam," Deysach said.
The interest has reached the point to where Deysach is beginning the research to try to have this bike produced on a regular basis. Deysach said the cost for the frame, fork and stem are $3,500 currently. "Hopefully if I can find a producer we can trim that down," he said.
But this bike isn't made for everyday use. "You couldn't bike this in the rain" for fear of warping, Deysach said.