Bamboo How-To

[jefft]

Found at bOING bOING, check it http://www.bme.szm.sk/bambooframe.htm

[phidauex]

That is sweet! Those lugsets for carbon frames seem to offer a lot of possibility... Just plug and play whatever material you feel like using. :)

peace,
sam

[mrballistic]

beat me to it! :)

[JohnCub]

That bike is absolutely beautiful. If those were mass produced I believe I'd have to have one.

[moxfyre]

Super cool. I love the look of that finished bike. How does the strength of bamboo compare to conventional metal frame materials?

Now how about a bamboo fork? :D

[jefft]

It depends on the bamboo, but I imagine it would wear at the joints after a while.

[phidauex]

I'm sure the way most people ride their bikes, the bamboo would be plenty strong. That stuff is tremendously strong. Also notice that he filled the tubes up with expanding polyurethane foam, also light and very strong (it can even be used as a structural element in buildings). If you protect the ends of the bamboo, preventing it from splintering, then it is a great material. If it splinters, its all over.

I'm envisioning a bamboo chopper with big wooden handlebars..

peace,
sam

[dooley]

Hermes used to sell a wooden bike, looked pretty cool.

[Stacey]

I'm sure the way most people ride their bikes, the bamboo would be plenty strong. That stuff is tremendously strong. Also notice that he filled the tubes up with expanding polyurethane foam, also light and very strong (it can even be used as a structural element in buildings). If you protect the ends of the bamboo, preventing it from splintering, then it is a great material. If it splinters, its all over.

I'm envisioning a bamboo chopper with big wooden handlebars..

peace,
sam


And bamboo forks too? Certianly would qualify as a gummikuh!

[GeezerGeek]

I'm sure the way most people ride their bikes, the bamboo would be plenty strong. That stuff is tremendously strong. Also notice that he filled the tubes up with expanding polyurethane foam, also light and very strong (it can even be used as a structural element in buildings). If you protect the ends of the bamboo, preventing it from splintering, then it is a great material. If it splinters, its all over.

I'm envisioning a bamboo chopper with big wooden handlebars..

peace,
sam
I agree with Sam, if it splits it is all over. I used to use bamboo cross country ski poles and when in the back country, a split pole could be disastrous. To protect the poles, people used to wrap little rings of tape around the pole. If a pole starts to split, it will stop the pole from splitting or slow the progression of the split. Even after a pole splits, it retained enough strength to use. A safety improvement to a bamboo bike would be to wrap reflective tape around the frame both for visibility and splitting.

[spang621]

check it out

http://www.americanbamboo.org/GeneralInfoPages/BambooBicycle.html

[EarlT]

check it out

http://www.americanbamboo.org/GeneralInfoPages/BambooBicycle.html

Great link, thanks for providing it!
Found it to be quite interesting.

[djbrod]

Are those lugs commercially available or were those fabricated for this project only?

[wakamole]

I'm interested in the lugs too anyone know about them?
I have seen a few around using steel lugs and composite wrap to hold it in but this looks stronger.

[randya]

I ran into one of these guys (http://bikeportland.org/2007/08/06/daedalus-working-on-a-bamboo-city-bike/) on the bike path last year and got to try his bamboo single speed. It was quite a nice ride. Lugs are carbon fiber.

[rollin]

http://www.calfeedesign.com/bamboo.htm#

[AllenG]

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=376129
Two of us have just recently put bamboo frames together.


{edit}
Just realized the age of this thread