It’s a first for me: a follow to a story that has appeared in the Lee Valley Tools newsletter and on the Home Improvement Show with Jon Eakes show on CJAD. But this school project was too cool to pass up. Here’s the top of the story:
Reinventing the wheel
Teen builds fully functional bicycle made entirely of wood – even the chain
By Andy Riga, The Gazette
Most kids listen absent-mindedly to their grandparents’ childhood stories.
Not Marco Facciola.
Inspired by his grandfather’s tales of life in Holland during the Second World War, the 16-year-old designed and built a unique school project: a fully functional bicycle made entirely of wood. Yes, even the chain. He used a bit of glue but no metal, plastic or rubber.
The bike is making him the toast of woodworking, cycling and environmental websites and may earn him an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.
“I’ve ridden it only once for 15, 20 feet – I just wanted to make sure I could hand it in as a fully functional bike,” said Marco, a Grade 11 student at St. Thomas High School in Pointe Claire.
“It was a bumpy ride because there are no shocks and it’s not like a regular bike where the air in the tires absorb the bumps. But the seat’s comfortable – I carved it to make it fit me.”
Marco’s maternal grandfather, Case Vandersluis, often spoke of how as a teenager in Holland he had to build wooden wheels for his bike because tires were scarce because of a wartime rubber shortage.
Vandersluis went on to become a mechanical engineer.
The rest of my story is here.
For more pictures and Facciola’s first-person account of building the bike, read the Lee Valley Tools newsletter article. Or click here, to listen to Facciola on the Jon Eakes show.
Speaking of Eakes, back in prehistoric times when I covered technology for The Gazette, I wrote about his very helpful home-improvement website. He still has it and it’s still very helpful.
