Too bad you're on the opposite coast from the Bamboo Bike Studio. They have a 2-day course that teaches you the basics of building bamboo bikes. (They are doing good things in conjunction with Columbia University's Bamboo Bike Project--attempting to help establish factories to build bamboo bikes in a number of third world countries.) Since you're a student, maybe if you contact them, the Bamboo Bike Studio can give you some pointers via e-mail. Here's a link to their web page, which has contact info. http://bamboobikestudio.com/go/home Good luck, your project sounds interesting. This is a thread I'll keep track of.