Combining her expertise in woodworking and her passion for vintage cafe racer and scrambler motorcycle, Evie Bee, has crafted an impressive-looking wooden electric bicycle, called Electraply, and gave it a modern twist.
The woodworker’s passion for applying a sustainable design to a personal and healthy means of transport such as the bicycle marks the identity of a project where modern manufacturing methods are combined with traditional construction techniques.
After searching through various scrambler motorcycles, she decided to take inspiration from the Yamaha SR 250 Scrambler to construct the Electraply. This is because the SR 250 is one of the most popular donor bikes for custom scrambler motorcycle projects. The wooden e-bike is made almost entirely from plywood, giving it its name, and can reach a top speed of 28 mph (45 km/h).
The Electraply was designed in Rhino 3D, with the frame milled on the CNC machine and the stainless steel components cut on a plasma cutter. The frame is made predominantly from layers of sustainably sourced poplar ply as well as some birch ply for the outside layers. The dropouts are made from stainless steel, which features in other areas of the bike where a bit of extra strength is needed.
What powers the Electraply is a 26″ smart pie front-wheel motor and a 36v 12.5ah battery from Yose power. This allows the wooden e-bike to travel at a top speed of 28 mph (45 km/h) with an average range of 22 miles (35 km). Including its battery and motor, the bike weighs around 66 lbs (30 kg).
The battery is attached to the top of the frame, making it look like a motorcycle petrol tank – just like the scrambler motorbikes have their gas tanks very visible. Bee built the frame for the seat using brass piping and sewed her own faux leather seat cover using hand stitching.
This is not the first time we have seen a vehicle with wooden bodywork. Last year, a Japanese designer Mikiya Kobayashi showed his concept of the Ily-Ai electric tricycle with a wooden body. Newron Motors’ wooden electric motorcycle also presented a flawless, eye-catching design.
Evie is planning to run a crowdfunding campaign in the future for those who want to own this beauty. But if you’re the DIY type of person, you can also build this ride from scratch.
To share the design with others and teach people interested in building their own Electraply wooden e-bike, Evie has written two free e-books that are available on her website. The first part of the first book is about the design process of the bike, while the second portion book maps the entire construction process of turning the design into a real-life functioning e-bike.
