Wooden Scooter YEDOO 1913
| RedakceJakub Bostl, the leading design engineer of Yedoo brand, built a unique wooden scooter at the occasion of scooter competition that took place in tribute to 100 years anniversary of Tour de France. This model, which he called Yedoo 1913, was made of plywood from a transportation cart in only three evenings.
We were so impressed by the result and by Jakub’s charming ride on this historical yet still functional machine that we decided to bring you some more details about the whole story. Jakub’s photographic reportage as well as his distinctive interpretation is worth discovering. Jakub narrates:
Plywood Board
I have produced the wooden or, rather, plywood scooter thanks to help of Yarda „Lesík“ Hájek. As far as the construction material is concerned, we used some specials: the plywood is made from the cart board which I had constructed 11 years ago when I started in the company. This particular board has transported hundreds, maybe thousands of tons of goods. The cart was exposed to rain, snow, frost, harsh treatment and reckless driving of warehousemen (me included). We rode it in the same skilful way as if riding a scooter and with the same grace as if on a snowboard.
We took the cart with us also when travelling – we have been to a trade fair in Munich, Nuremberg, Cologne, Bratislava and in the Alpes, in Friedrichshafen, the city on the Bodensee.
If the scooter had a mouth and could speak, it would spend many evenings narrating its stories :-). Well, the truth is that while constructing it, I realized that the plywood board looked rather worn out so I did not use it to utilize it as a footboard and, just to make sure, I fixed and strengthened all the joints with U-shaped manufactured pads.
The scooter contours are not cut accurately on purpose, I wanted this road scooter to make an impression as if it was manufactured some 100 years ago in a simple garage
Jakub Is Getting Used To A New Riding Style
When I tried that piece of wood combined with the new 28“ and 20“ wheels, I was more than happy. I rode this scooter produced from plywood during the zero year stage competition Tour de Šumava 2013. The beginning was not easy though - the footboard was rubbing against the ground and the scooter was twisting. I thought it would get better with time but it didn´t. So I had no other choice than somehow deal with it.
The Best Is Yet To Come
If I had more time for preparation and scooter production, I would have used extremely resilient glue to all its joints and I would also have fixed the breaks so that slowing down by my own shoe would just be a funny story to tell friends and the tyre would not get worn out as it did in the last stage of the competition. Well, I will know better next time. I am going to make a real wooden road scooter but only if I manage to get a real maverick and ram´s horns.
See you then,
Jakub Bostl