Would it be possible to construct a bicycle without using fossil fuels?

[Charles R. Stevens]

To continue my rant, as to the hardship of not having your beloved synthetic fibers, God forbid you have to wear cotton, linnen, wool, silk or hemp.
Most of you are wearing cotton BVD's, socks, jeans and t-shirts. Linnen, silk and hemp are the bomb, as is rayon (a senthetic made from cellulose, obtained from wood, cotton or bamboo). And for wool, I know a bit about wool, as my better half and I raise a few sheep. Linda spins, and I dabble in weaving. Wool is the FIBER! It comes in grades so fine that the best underwear is made from it, tests have shone that performance athlete are actually cooler and sweat less wearing it, and with out chemical treatments it is anti bacterial, meaning your feet don't stink, and after showing horses all day in 106 degree heat I don't stink (as much) and I don't get heat rash.
Athletes and threw hikers are wearing Marino wool underwear, the best socks are made from Coradale wool (don't need elastic to stay up). Yes army blankets are tough and scratchy, they use up to a 1/3 resycled wool, and are built for durability, sweaters were never ment to be worn against your skin, unless its an argile or Marino turtleneck.
All that, and wool actually produces heat wen wet.

[yahoo2]

fossil fuel is essentially plant material that has been decomposed without oxygen. There is nothing that you can do with oil,coal,gas that cant be recreated directly from plant material given a little brainpower and financial incentive.

[VaughnT]

Charles, you're 100% correct that there are other ways of getting what we get from oil.  The problem with them, and the reason we went to oil and synthesizing during WW2, was that you can't produce enough of it, fast enough.  I had this discussion just the other day with a marijuana supporter.

 

While cotton does produce fibers and oils that we can use to produce XYZ, think about how many acres it would take to produce a significant amount.  Then compute how many acres you would need to produce a consistent stream so that you don't have dry spells that slow or stop manufacturing down the line.  Tabulating that, what is the net damage to the local ecosystems caused by the monocultures that are crop fields, and the harvesting/processing of the crop?  Hint: it's far worse than oil production.

 

Wool does rock, though!  I just wish there were more wool ranchers so the price would come down a bit!

[Charles R. Stevens]

I agree Vaughn, it's not economically or ecologically viable to stop using petrochemicals.
Just possible.
As to wool, took to growing it our selves. The big issue is economics, the wool buyers in the US, are paying a price that is only marginally higher than production costs. So their has been a shift to hair sheep for the meat trade. The market for fleases in the US ifs for colored and exotics for hand spinners.
But I have an ace in the hole, Linda has worked as a profetinal seamstress and costumer, as well as a spinner, so I can have custome garmets. I had to build her a 8x8 walkin closet, but it's all good.

[Rich Hale]

I think my memory of the cotton grown near Goodyear is a wee bit different...I have always understood the material was used in tires for the cords. The rest of the tire was rubber. 

But this of course is another rabbit trail for this thread. It just about seems as if the original poster has left us?

[Charles R. Stevens]

Yep, Rich that's how I understand it, the USMC seaweed controls of rubber plantations in South America for the rubber.

[ThomasPowers]

Shortages in wartime are a big push towards figuring out different ways to do things.

 

I once was able to attend a talk by the first woman Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs; turns out that a ship carrying brazilian quartz used for radios of the time was torpedo'd; and folks decided we needed to be able to grow our own and as she had the advanced degree in exactly the right area and would not be drafted...

[VaughnT]

"Shortages in wartime..."

 

I love pointing out to people just how much benefit there has been because of the needs of war.  Accurate time pieces, vulcanized rubber, jet propulsion... it's a crazy long list of things that are keystones to modern society.  Reminds me of that old saying, "Everybody always says that war's not the answer, but they never tell you what the question was!"  :)

 

I like thinking outside the box, and building a bike with minimal technology would be a wonderful project.  Heck, even if you built one like they had to build them back when they were first invented would be a cool thing to try.  I wonder how much those bikes weighed?  Did the makers roll their own tubes, brazing the seams?  If I recall correctly, the pedal-housing juncture on a lot of the early designs was cast iron.

[ThomasPowers]

Search on Penny Farthing Bicycle  and boneshaker bicycle       Tubes?  We don't need no stinking tubes!