Delaware County man creating bikes out of discarded wood

ESSINGTON, Pa. (WPVI) -- In a little workshop in a basement in Essington, Delaware County, Joe LaVallee spends his free time turning junk wood into bicycles.

"I come down here for peace and quiet and to work alone," he said.

LaVallee said he got into woodwork a few years ago when he wanted to make a butcher's table. A little later, he discovered his love for cycling and decided to combine the two passions.

"I don't know how people when they come out of a shop know which one their bike is because it looks like every other bike," he said. "How cool would it be to ride down the boardwalk in a wooden bicycle like this?"

He says each of his bikes are made from recycled wood. One he's working on now came from an old spiral staircase that would have gone to a junkyard.

His first bike came from branches of a fallen tree he found out about on social media.

"I ended up filling my truck up twice with logs of black walnut," LaVallee said.

The bikes aren't the other thing that's recycled either on his projects. "I've got leather seats, these are leather handgrips that I made from an old leather jacket that I had."

What could be his own trash, Joe says he'll treasure forever.

"I bet you I could make a bicycle out of [my] dining room table," he said.