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Wow, many of you people must not have lived near trees long enough to see a tree grow from sapling to full-grown. Along one back section of our farm, there's an old fence that's lifted up in sections from where silver maples have grown through it. It's only in some sections where the fence is loose and broken off the posts that it's raised a good 3-4 feet and embedded in the tree. Where the fence is still connected, the trees (and shrubs) have just grown around the fence without lifting it although there is more tension in the fence in these areas.

So if that bike had a small tree grow up around it, then it's entirely possible, even probably. If we say that bike is from the 1940's, which it certainly can be as it looks similar to the 1940's bicycle in his photo http://www.sheldonbrown.com/images/5bikes.jpeg (extreme left), then I don't see what the fuss is about. You don't think a tree can get that big in 60 some odd years?

Here's another bicycle eating tree, http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-6U8J98

I was born on Vashon in 1983, and both my parents are from the Island as well. I've watched that tree grow around that bike for years. I remember when the tree was still slightly "V-ed" on either side of the bike, I remember when there was a wheel still on it, and when it was only about 4 feet off the ground. It is pretty well hidden. You really have to know how to find it. It's off the main highway on Vashon just off the Sound Foods parking lot. You have to walk a little way back on this very overgrown trail. When I first saw it, it was really obvious that it was just propped up in the V of the tree. You could almost have still dug it out. Honestly, I've watched the tree just grow up around it. Not too much of a mystery I'm afraid.

While everyone seems to be correct about the primary growth, one has to consider that the bike is in a fork of the tree, where the side pressures from the secondary growth are angled as such to be able to "push" the bike upwards. Also, the growth of the root system is being discounted. In unsettled soil or wet climates, the growth of the root system could possibly elevate the visible portions of the tree. Combine that with the possibility that the ground around the tree has sunken and/or eroded, and there is a good chance that the bicycle was indeed simple placed in the fork of a tree and left to its fate. There is a tree on Thackery street in Pittsburgh that has grown around a very old parking rail. There are other rails next to it, all in similar condition, yet the rail inside the tree is markedly bent in the middle, as if upward pressure had been applied. It may have been possible for the rail/bike to be in such a position that the pressure from the combination of primary/secondary growth was such that the rail/bike was lifted, rather than encapsulated; much like a surfer is pushed forward rather than flung into the air.

Consider this:
If the bike was placed in the fork of a young tree the lifting can be explained very well.
Inevitably the branches become thicker and the
gap between them will move upwards.
Imagine placing a hard object within scissors and pressing: the object will be forced outwards. Growth from the base is not necessary.

Check out the famous Brig o'turk "metal eating tree" in Scotland. Not only a bicycle left by a young man who went to war and didn't return, but hundreds of metal objects over the years from an old blacksmith shop. I think they also lay claim
to the famous Red Rider story.

Sorry, Maybe I should have said Red Ranger story
on my comment

That's a crazy story. I remember seeing this years ago now, I always thought that it was pretty cool.

What made me think of this was seeing a picture of a tree with a piece of metal, what looked like possibly a shopping cart, poking out of it. I can only assume that the shopping cart was actually embedded into the tree, rather than the tree naturally growing around it, as is apparent with this bicycle.

Give this bike 50 years and let's see how it turns out--

http://www.bakfiets-en-meer.nl/wp-content/gallery/new-york/bike-in-tree.jpg

Isn't vashon island where K2's headquarters are? I'd be surprised if this wasn't some sort of stunt put on my K2 to bring some media hype.

Yes, K2 used to be on the island, but they left because of the price to getting to and from the island. They still own some buildings there. Anyway, it wasn't K2 that put it there. It's buried way back the the bushes in some woods not near the old headquarters. It was just some guy that put the bike up in the fork of a tree. I watched it grow up that way (being from Vashon). Its that simple!

If you go to disney land in florida there is a lawm mower in fort wilderness that a tree grew right thru the middle and it is still on the ground,

There's a tree like that in my back garden, along the railway line... There's also a tree that's grow from a crack in between two blocks on part of the bridge, and as it's got bigger has made that part of the bridge wall collapse... These things happen, I don't know why you'd think they were hoaxes =/.

It's become a kind of art to put things in a tree...
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=23843713@N00&q=money+log&m=text