the problem I have with bamboo bikes is that all the junctures of the frame are not bamboo. The only places wher it's bamboo is the tubes. you could use the same design and build a bike out of reinforced cardboard tubes.
Suposedly the idea for the design was to help people in Africa use their natural resource to build bikes so everyone there could have transportation. I'm really wondering where somebody from the Congo is going to be getting a Campy crankset from....
OK, obviously I am exagerating a little bit, (they would probably use a Shimano chainring) but still the fact that the head tube is machined and uses bearing and that the bottom bracket is machined and uses bearings, kind of precludes building these in your backyard.
The tubes are nothing. I could take any bike, cut the tubes out of it and readily replace them with bamboo, or PVC or anything long enough and round. I could make them out of broomsticks on my lathe pretty easily. Would it ride as well as this bamboo bike, don't know, don't care right now, it's not pertinent to this arguement.
If you want to build the bike like that and say "I did it for the ride quality", I am fine with that, but it's not really a bamboo bike frame.
Let me say that I have no problem with bamboo. My other hobby is building bamboo fly rods so I know what the qualities of bamboo are. I love the material, it's great and it's increadibly strong, in some ways stronger than the equivalent steel.The problem I have is that these bikes are advertized as being built out of bamboo and it's the least dificult part of the frame that is made out of bamboo. Just doesn't sit right with me.