Dear reader,
As the title says, my plan is to build a recumbent bike out of bamboo. Before I go further I will introduce myself as this is my first posting here. I live in New York City, am going to high school, and love to tinker with/build stuff. I started with model soldiers, then started making model planes (still doing so) and now I want to build my own bike. I have minimal knowledge about bike building, although two great guys from my school are already helping me a little, and so I need some place where I can ask a lot of questions and get answers from people who know what they're talking about. All help is much appreciated!

The Bike:
I already have an idea of what I would like to build and it is almost entirely the same as this bamboo recumbent made by Klaus Volkmann:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erxjvLgxULo

The only variation to the design I would purposefully do is lengthening the two bamboo pieces that attach to the back wheel (my lack of bike vocabulary already becoming apparent) so that the seat could be pushed forward a few inches, allowing a rack to be placed over the back wheel.

Questions:
I have a number of them but first and foremost; is this the best design for a bamboo recumbent? I want the bike to be short wheel base (for the small city) and aerodynamic (again I think that a short wheel base helps with this because of the angle of the seat) and able to carry at least my school bag.
2) What should the thickness of the bamboo be? I am cutting it down this weekend from a friends property so the supply isn't a problem. Also, the friends I mentioned before have a blowtorch to heat treat the bamboo.
3) Is my first step to make 1:1 plans on a big piece of paper? If it is how do I go about starting this? Do I need to take my height into consideration?

Curious and excited,

-Sunnyboy44