Twmpa Cycles: A Bike Made From Trees

A furniture maker in Wales is starting a conversation about the sustainability of bicycle manufacturing. After a conversation with author Robert Penn, Andy Dix came up with the idea to build a bicycle made from trees! Twmpa Cycles avoids traditionally used materials like carbon fiber, steel, and aluminum, Twmpa makes their bike frames from wood. Specifically, British-grown ash.

“It’s great to push for more bikes and fewer cars on the road, but you can’t escape the fact that the bike industry as a whole is pretty energy-intensive.” — Andy Dix, Founder of Twmpa Cycles

How much does a wooden bike cost?

A standard Twmpa frame starts at £3000 (which is just over $4000 CAD). It can also be customized to your body and riding style and can be supplied on its own for you to build or as a frameset. Twmpa has also put together some of their favorite builds that you can choose as ‘off-the-shelf’ options or as a starting point for your customization.

Wood you ride this?

Are you concerned about the durability of a bike made from wood? Did you know that wood has a better weight-to-strength ratio than steel or aluminum!

Andy spent two years building his first prototype. Seeking out the roughest roads for test rides, he found the bike extremely comfortable.

“Rather than relying on processed metals, or layers of plastic that will one day end up in landfill, I’m building bikes from captured carbon, in a process powered by sunlight.”

Ash Wood:

Ash is known as an underdog in the lumber industry. It is relatively cheap and fairly easy to process. Ash is a very utilitarian material, but it turns out it’s also great at absorbing vibration. Andy was riding along brought and battered roads that would have normally been extremely uncomfortable on a carbon bike.

“Not only could I make a bike out of wood, but it had inherent advantages over other materials.”

Climate Impacts of Biking vs. Driving:

Not only is cycling one of the healthiest and most low-impact forms of exercise but it is also healthy for our planet. Of course, the manufacturing of a carbon bike releases tons of greenhouse gases. It is important to remember that the longer you use your bike, the better it is for the environment.

The U.S. Census estimates that about half of all Americans live within five miles of their workplace. If everyone in the world who works less than 5 miles from home cycled instead of driving to work one day a week, it would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 5 million tons a year. That’s the equivalent of 1 million people getting rid of their cars. And it would save over 24 billion gallons of gas!

Riding a bike also reduces traffic congestion. Idling cars are bad for the environment, so less cars on the road means a healthier community.