Treehouses have been one of my favorite things in the world for about as long as I remember. And, for that matter, bikes have held a position up amongst the best of the best for a long time as well. Combining the two almost makes me drool. Ethan Schlussler has done just that (combine bikes & treehouses, not drool…):
For some more details, here’s the current description on the YouTube page:
I have built a tree house (though it is not finished yet) that is nearly 30 feet up a tree. I got tired of climbing a ladder six and a half million times a day, so I made a bicycle powered elevator to solve this problem. Don’t you wish you had one? :p I welcome any questions or comments.
Also, I was under the impression that this was obvious, but I have been proven very much wrong: IT’S A DOG, NOT A BEAR.
There seem to be a few frequently asked questions, so I will answer them here in hopes that people will read this before asking questions, or misinforming other people with incorrect idea.
1) How do you get off at the top? Very simple: I step off the bicycle, and onto the treehouse. Since this video was made, I have cut a section out of the (temporary) railing to make this easier.
2) What happens if you forget to anchor the bike at the bottom? It would go flying back to the top, but I can’t imagine how I could possible forget to do that, because it would be pretty obvious when getting off that something was wrong. But even if I did manage to do that, there will always be a ladder of some sort for backup.
3) What if you fall/is that safe? Of course it’s not “safe”, but neither is walking across the street. That said, almost every part of the system is many times stronger than necessary, and there is no single part that would make it free fall if it broke. And even if it did fall, I would most likely survive; it’s only 28 feet (at most).
4) Can you give us a tour of the tree house? Yes, as soon as it is finished.
5) Can you do a tutorial? I could, but I think that would not be necessary. If you are capable of building this for yourself, you can probably figure out how it works mostly from looking at it. And if you are not that capable, you probably shouldn’t be trying to build something like this…
Naturally, this awesome creation has gotten quite a bit of attention. Sarah Laskow of Grist also happened to catch these two cool videos from Ethan:
Well, the first one is totally beautiful imho, while I find the second one a bit ‘meh’, but the snow cave itself does look pretty cool. You can get an inside look at the snow cave (+ other snow fun, which includes a unicycle) here:
And photos can be found on Ethan’s Facebook Photography page.
Okay, I think we’ve strayed far enough off the bicycle track. Have a good evening! (Or day, morning, etc. :D)