Tell us about the concept behind the Black Walnut Bike Frame. What gave you the idea to design a bike with wood as its primary material? And please tell us that someone is riding around Chicago on that bike right now. It’s too cool to just be left in a shop, although it wouldn’t be out of place in an art museum.
After leaving the bike industry and not really riding bikes much afterwards (always preferred working on bikes vs. riding them, Chicago is pretty boring terrain-wise)
I put them out of my mind until last year when I was invited to be part of a group show called “Object Society” and I figured that I was the guy that could do this. I know bikes intimately and I’m a furniture maker so, how hard could it be? AND I was positive that no one else would have made a bike out of walnut. In the history of bicycles there are many examples of wood frames and even components, my challenge was to make a frame like a furniture maker would, not a bike guy. All bikes are round or oval tubes basically and almost all furniture is square or rectangular sticks so I wanted my bike to be like furniture, square sticks put together with wood working joinery. I did not want to trick people, “that’s wood? I couldn’t tell, looks like my Trek!” Boring… It sits in the shop, but it is a nice riding bike on the road when I bother to ride it….
What’s in store from Lagomorph design in the future?
Putting the bike into production and playing with the design and finishes is one of the first things to follow the hype that I’m getting regarding the bike. I’m collaborating with leather Artist Casey Gunschel and we started a line of wood and leather furniture under the name chimaerastudio.com and are looking to find places that can sell that level of crazy and expensive design. Lagomorph will continue to make furniture for anyone with a checkbook and work on some more production oriented pieces and things that I need for my house.
