1. I like bamboo because I can get it (SF Japantown), it's clean to work with (no need for torches in my Apt), and it has a very high strength (it'll bend before it breaks).

2. While I'm not expert at bamboo bike building. I consulted a guy at TAPS plastics who advises some custom framebuilders that use bamboo:

I really don't like risking injury, so I've over-engineered everything. The bamboo's air dried (not flame dried). It'll be reinforced with epoxy sealer. The inside will be reinforced with polyurethane foam. The outside will be reinforced with hemp lugs (ala Bmeres).

I also don't plan to do any messenger-esque stuff (racing cars, going against traffic,etc). If I build the bike, I'll be testing it gingerly at first (residential street, curbs) before riding around town.

4. The toptube will be two tubes of bamboo strapped together in parallel. They're 29 mm in diameter with 5 mm walls.

5. I will be using a metal seat-tube, metal seat stays, a titanium BBshell, metal dropouts. Anything contacting metal will be metal.

6. I've been following the bamboo thread and Bmere's thread for a while. Over spring break, I gathered material from around sf. I'm building a bamboo fixed gear cyclocross bike based on the Waterford X-33.

The swift folder actually is a logical candidate for this manufacturing method. It only has one hinge, and an elegantly simple geometry.


Thanks for the suggestion Baccialupe. I'm already planning on using the Big Apples (heard good stuff on them). I'm not sure on the carbon stem (where do I find one long enough?).

awetmore, I'm curious about the need for metal seat-stays. I was just going to use metal for the top 3 cm (the actual overlap point to the tube), and joint it to bamboo. I'll stop considering carbon (I'll need to see how much a swift fork costs).

I'm still curious about the fork, since I've heard good stuff on the Mauna Kea thread about the MEKs fork on his DT.