Comments on: RECYCLED BICYCLE FURNITURE by Frida Ottemo Kallstrom

By: Creative and sustainable biking « Eco-Coach

Creative and sustainable biking « Eco-Coach — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 01:28:54 +0000

[...] using wheels, frames, and seats to make furniture (Frida Ottemo Kallstrom, Andrew Gregg, Bike Furniture Design) as well as pot [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 07:26:15 +0000

LIGHTEN UP CRITICS! These stools are beautiful works of art. Purist cyclists will recognize the grace Frida has captured in their rendering, and appreciate them as the finest sort of furniture. A good friend once gave me some good advice about furniture. He said you should always choose furniture that you could sit and appreciate for its form as much as function. I could stare at a bicycle for hours. Whether it’s the lines of a sleek new racing bike, or the impossibly slender tubing of a steel frame from the 70’s and early 80’s, bicycles are beautiful. Frida has created beautiful furniture that engenders speed, whimsy, freedom, and a youthful vigor that some so called cyclists cast aside in their pursuit of faster split times. So Frida, how do I get my own?

By: B I K E « elmblog

B I K E « elmblog — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:52:57 +0000

[...] November 22, 2007 B I K E Posted by elm under Uncategorized I am inspired [...]

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 15:26:46 +0000

After having purchased a quality bike at a bike shop, I would argue that taking crappy bicycles out of circulation is doing a favor to anyone who wants to encourage riding. Cheap, poorly constructed bicycles discourage people from riding.

I think there is some real potential in the lighting pieces.

By: Marc

Marc — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 15:35:52 +0000

Hey Folks,

This person is trying to do something original, functional, and interesting with other people’s trash. Tons of bicycles end up in landfills. Give her a break and don’t criticize her on her own webpage. Plenty of people out there in landyachts or building disposable furniture out of chipped trees that deserve criticism. If you don’t like the stuff, don’t buy it.

Marc

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 11:51:48 +0000

If you like this, try http://www.bikefurniture.com. It’s miles better!

By: Ordinaryshark

Ordinaryshark — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 16:24:29 +0000

Those who are criticizing this artist clearly do not have enough information. I have owned bicycle shops and am currently active in refurbishing bicycles for continued use. (For example we sent 700 bicycles to the south for Katrina victims. There are thousands upon thousands of bicycle just in my area that are well beyond fixing. I have used many of these in the same fashion as above. I have a hundred in my barn alone. For every five bicycle thrown out one is rideable two are salvageable and two are trash. It is not worthy recycling if $200 worth of time and $150 worth of new parts are required to resuscitate a cheap bicycle that originally cost $99. She is recycling very appropriately.
AS for sitting on them, I have some that I have been sitting on for 30 years. They just don’t look as nice as hers. Here’s a hint: use the wide seats!

By: Paula Shain

Paula Shain — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 15:11:59 +0000

I use to have a bike a long time ago. I think that is a good way of recycling the materials that are on the bike. that is very neat and cool.

By: John

John — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 19:30:20 +0000

Way cool. Repurposing old things should be embraced by our throw-away, one-time-use society. Often when you find an old cruiser with a bent rim, or a busted coaster brake, the parts usually cost more than the bike would be worth once fixed, and even then you’re only waiting for something else to go.

I’ve got about 4 junker bikes at my home right now, in addition to the 3 I actually ride for pleasure, and the townie/commuter. For three years I’ve been casually fixing up old bikes in hopes of getting people to commute on two fewer wheels. It’s great to see someone ride away on a recycled bike, but sometimes the machines are too far gone. So for those who say the designer should’ve fixed the bikes and ridden them, I ask you this: when a bike is too far gone, would you rather see those resources used in a thought provoking and creative way, or go in the dumpster?

By: David

David — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 23:34:52 +0000

I work in bicycle recycling orgs. Don’t worry about us running out of bikes, there are plenty. We through out most of what is given to us because it is utter crap. Sometimes we use the tubes for something else: furniture, levers, trailers. This person is _not_ wasting anything. But yeah, sitting on a bike saddle at home sounds sorta uncomfortable.

By: Amber

Amber — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 19:18:31 +0000

I think the floor lamp is aesthestically pleasing, I’d have that in my home. I think it’s a great idea overall, it just needs a bit more consideration into the functionality of the pieces.

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 11:21:39 +0000

I’d say 99% percent of the discarded bikes I’ve seen were totally rideable with just a little maintenance. Bent frames and metal fatigue? For anything but a hard-core rider that sort of damage just doesn’t happen, unless the bike was driven over with a car. For anything but a hard-core rider that sort of damage wouldn’t even matter if it did occur.

The problem with this sort of ‘design’ is that once its novelty wears off it will end up right back in the trash. It’s like fashion, too much of a passing thing. Whereas a working bike has utility.

And I make very useful things out of old inner tubes (often the only thing on a discard bike that needs replacing), thank you very much.

By: Mike Hill

Mike Hill — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 00:35:51 +0000

This is a cool project and a necessary one. Not only do many bikes not make it to a refurbishment or parts state, many bikes are so damaged at the end of their useable life (dents, bent frames, metal fatigue) that giving them to a “needy person” to ride is less a gift than an invitation to serious injury. The time and embodied energy – and cost – to make a bike like that rideable is totally impractical. These bikes can’t be used as transportation again, and will doubtless end up in the waste stream unless they are re-purposed as furniture or housewares. As a serious cyclist, I can say that I have a bike stool at home, made by youth in a recycle-a-bike program, that I use as my workshop stool. It’s lightweight, easy to manuver, and I don’t have to worry about trashing it.

I understand goal of keeping more used bikes in the flow for folks to ride. Even the most hard-core cyclists have to realize that sometimes, things are no longer useable. Or are all you purists keeping every old inner tube and tire for use as a bungee, just in case? Certainly, this is a better, more creative, more in the environmentalist spirit, less wasteful of material and energy solution than trashing bikes.

By: Salty

Salty — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 18:19:41 +0000

Neat idea. Perhaps bicycle theives everywhere will finally be deterred.

By: smolove

smolove — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 15:56:07 +0000

No, not necessarily the most comfortable. Yes, it would be better if the bikes were operable and intimate with otherwise gas guzzling booties. But artists will make their art. At least this woman is not using raw materials. Hopefully she incorporates as much of the bikes as possible into her work.