I've been doing a bit of experimenting with bamboo while I wait for some parts to arrive, and I've found some interesting things. I've been splitting short lengths of bamboo in half and gluing them back together, and have found that this does not seem to decrease the strenth in any way. Once they have been glued, I split them from the inside out, and none of them have cracked along the glue lines. This means that one could split your bamboo tubes in half, apply a protective coating to the inside, and then just glue the two halves back together when you build the frame. I tried using both a diagonal cut, for more surface area, and a cut perpendicular to the outside, and neither broke.




An interesting point this leads to, is the fact that you can then make bladed bamboo tubes, if you have large enough diameter bamboo available:



To maximize surface area on the bladed tube, I cut a right angle in one side, and a notch in the other, as shown:




There is probably very little practical application for bladed tubes, but It would look pretty awesome. If I were to actually do this in a bike, it would probably just be for the down tube.

I did not break the glue joints on any of these, and I was not even using epoxy- I just used regular wood glue.

It's funny how I am not quite even finished with my first bike, and I have already planned out a second one!