A Fully-Functional Bicycle Made of Concrete Is a Thing That Exists, and It’s Awesome

The idea of a bicycle, whether of the conventional sort or the more modern, motor-assisted version, is to get you to travel faster from point A to point B, get some exercise and fresh air, and perhaps do a bit of good for the environment as well by leaving the car at home for once. Whichever the reason one chooses cycling for, the idea is that it should help them move faster than when traveling by foot, and with more convenience than by public transport.

The Concrete Bike doesn’t care about all this. It is too heavy to roll at anything but a slow crawl and, despite its massive appearance, too brittle to actually be convenient or reliable. It is a safety hazard and the least of comfortable or easy modes of transport. But it’s awesome nonetheless, if only to prove the point above: creativity is boundless. It’s also awesome because it’s a bike of concrete, and it exists.

This is the creation of the team behind Play to DIY, a YouTube channel that boasts of making “all kinds of creative content” that involves “experiments, creativity, DIY,” whether it’s concrete work or robotics, or even a mix of the two. It is dubbed the “first concrete functional bike in the whole world,” drawing inspiration from similar, now-viral videos that also aimed to reinvent the bicycle. The description references the Icycle, the bike with circular saws for wheels, and the hubless bike, both of which we covered on previous occasions.

The manufacturing process is presented in a 21-minute video, which, dare we say it, is a must-see even if you’re not into cycling. This is the result of careful planning and an extended period of tests, which is not included, and a lot of skill. From day one to the first test ride, it was a 2-month period of hard work, and it’s condensed in a very entertaining video that also offers a look behind the scenes.

The Concrete Bike is still a regular bike underneath the impressive facade. To be more accurate, it’s parts of old regular bicycles, which were cannibalized for the project – a sort of artsy upcycling, if you will.

For each part of the bike, the frame, the handlebars, the pedals, or the saddle, formworks had to be created out of plywood, which integrated the cannibalized part. For the frame, they used corrugated bars welded with epoxy glue for extra strength. The saddle is an old bike saddle dressed up in concrete, and the same method was used for the crankarms and the pedals.

For assembly, the team still had to use steel and metal screws and parts, which were inserted into holes in the concrete, connecting to the parts inside. Remember, this isn’t a sculpture or whatever you want to call it: from the get-go, the goal was to create a functional bicycle.

Because you can’t ride a concrete bike and not have the right accessories, the team also created a concrete helmet and a pair of concrete cycling glasses. Sadly, the helmet lived a short, albeit eventful and historically important (ha!) life, and perished after the first round of test drives, when the rider tried to put it on the handlebars and dropped it.

As you can see in the final chapter of the video, the experiment “made exclusively for artistic, experimental and entertainment purposes” was a success: the Concrete Bike is a fully-functional bicycle made of concrete.

It doesn’t have brakes and it rolls very slowly (and noisily), and it’s probably incredibly difficult to steer because of the weight, but it’s functional. Speaking of weight, the Concrete Bike tips the scales at 296.5 pounds (134.5 kg), which unofficially makes it the fattest fat bike ever to roll down a public street.