Cedarville professor’s wooden bikes featured in Rolls-Royce, Bentley publication

“They’re a clientele that I believe would respect the bikes,” Kinsinger stated.

Sojourn Cyclery has additionally been highlighted on PBS’s “American Woodshop” and in Kiriakos Iosifidis’ 2017 guide, “The Wooden Bicycle: Around the World.” Considered one of his wood bikes is within the Bicycle Museum of America.

Kinsinger stated he sells bikes to folks all around the world. There isn’t any typical shopper ― he makes bikes for folks underneath 100 kilos to over 300 kilos. Every bike is tailor-made to the person shopping for it.

“There aren’t many individuals on the market constructing wood bikes,” Kinsinger stated.

He has made a commuter bike for an environmental engineer in Baltimore who rides to work each day. He’s made a tandem bike for a Florida couple of their 70s who aren’t actually bike riders, however respect the wooden work.

“These bikes are greater than only a fairly face,” he stated. “It’s very distinctive. Form of a novelty… however it’s a easy trip.”

He additionally places on workshops the place he teaches courses on methods to construct a wood bicycle with some already-made items. The courses take three to 4 days, Kinsinger stated. He taught one to Apple staff in San Francisco.

His wood bike frames begin at $3,500. Workshop courses price about $2,000.

He began working in bike retailers when he was 14-years previous and labored in them all through highschool and faculty.

“I’ve all the time been a motorcycle nut,” Kinsinger stated.

He and his spouse biked on their honeymoon and their household has biked all around the U.S. and Europe. Kinsinger and his spouse trip a wood tandem of their free time. Most days Kinsinger bikes to work at Cedarville.

Cedarville resident Jay Kinsinger makes buyer wood bikes. CONTRIBUTED

Kinsinger has constructed steel bikes, however stated making a wood bike is extra enjoyable and the carbon footprint is smaller.

“I’m not knocking (steel bikes), but it surely’s very totally different from wooden,” he stated. “It’s extra enjoyable. I come out of my store and don’t should hose off all of the chemical substances from making a steel bike.”

His bikes are fabricated from laminated walnut. His first wood bike took about 400 hours to make fully by hand.

Now his bikes take about 40 hours to make. A part of the method is now automated. Every of Kinsinger’s bikes is produced with the assistance of a pc numeric managed (CNC) router. He writes packages for the customized fashions after which the router reads the packages and makes use of a spinning bit to carve out the required bike frames.

The wood body of the bike is hollowed out. He stated the body weighs about as a lot as an aluminum bike.

“It’s a little bit bit finer than my first handmade mannequin,” he stated.

Kinsinger stated he used his college students to assist take a look at the energy of his first wood bicycle. Later, college students helped create a enterprise mannequin for Sojourn Cyclery. Ryan Lee, who graduated from Cedarville in 2018, developed the web site for Sojourn Cyclery.