I am pondering building a bicycle out of wood,  

check out renovobikes.com really cool wooden bikes   and I am looking for local lumber that would work for this.  I am thinking  rock elm, or american elm.  its heavy but the linkage is great.  

 I cannot think of anything I would rather not have to split. 

either way check out the link.  pretty cool stuff going on out  there. 

If weight isn't too much concern I'd use either ash or hickory. both of these woods are strong and commonly used for tool handles so they hae excellent shock resistance.

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Round Barn WoodCrafts, Plymouth WI
roundbarnwoodcrafts@hotmail.com

Michael,

Hop Hornbeam ( Ironwood ) The leaves look similar to elm, but this stuff reguires the use of at least 7/32" chain on your saw otherwise 5/32" chain will be dull in one cut. Nastiest stuff to cut I've ran accross. It's a real pain to split also, shreads like spaghetti if not froze when splitting. I would rather split Elm than Ironwood.

 

Larry

Michael, I am going to bite on this one, what is "Crossed Linked Lumber?"

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

 cross linking  what holds the fiber strands together when you try to split it.  for example red oak has little cross linking  there for it is easily split by hand.   elm on the other hand has lots of cross linking,  and if you have ever tried to split the stuff you know it does not really split, but shreds, and it take a lot of energy to do that. 

Michael, thanks for the info that is very interesting. More ammo in my vocabulary!!!

michael frankhauser said:

 cross linking  what holds the fiber strands together when you try to split it.  for example red oak has little cross linking  there for it is easily split by hand.   elm on the other hand has lots of cross linking,  and if you have ever tried to split the stuff you know it does not really split, but shreds, and it take a lot of energy to do that. 

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops