Bamboo?

We've all seen pics of bamboo bicycles. I myself just thought of it as
a novelty. Well Calfee is getting serious about it, and sales are
going up. This is the guy who brought carbon fiber to the bicycle
industry. It has higher tensile strength than steel, more compression
resistance than concrete, and dampens high frequency vibration (ie
"road noise" to a cyclist) more effectively than carbon fiber. Like I
said, I always thought of it as a novelty - its starting to look like
a pretty serious material.

See this article:

https://www.newsweek.com/id/131702?rf=nwnewsletter

You know what happens to CF when you ride in the rain; just think of bamboo!

Our shop special ordered a Calfee Bamboo frame for a customer. My reactions was just, "eh". The brake mounting hole in the rear was off center and they used carbon fiber accents around the bottle bosses and on the seat stays, which look out of place. It's a cool concept but more of a boutique-y novelty than anythings else. And it felt heavier than any alu or cf frame I've ever picked up.

I haven't seen one in person myself.

I'm gathering from what I read that they are making improvements to using it in bike manufacturing. I mean if you look at early carbon fiber frames vs todays carbon frames there is a difference - it's kind of an evolutionary process.

Calfee-specific bamboo article from Velo earlier this year.

The comment about water absorption is intriguing...can't seem to find any specifics about it tho (without purchasing some sort of engineering white paper).

How long ago was this?

No...

2-3 weeks maybe

Pop into the framebuilders forum and see what's going on in there. ChaiapasFixed and AllenG have built themselves some nice looking bikes.

I've been thinking about making one. It seems like it would be a fun project for the amateur frame builder and you don't have tool up like you would for steel. I don't think it will ever be the next big thing however.

So if it rains on you and you're not well varnished your bicycle gets heavier!

You see a lot of bamboo scaffolding still in use in Asia, the strength and resilience is unquestionable

Stronger than steel? Not hardly.
I found internet hype sites claiming 28ksi and 52ksi (!!!) tensile strengths, but this was the only thing online that looked credible to me:

https://www-classes.usc.edu/engr/ce/334/2002_10.ppt
Result: 11 - 15 ksi

whereas 4130 has a tensile strength of around 90-95 ksi in a normalized condition.

Well, as far as the tensile strength claims you have to realize that there are over 1500 species of bamboo. It's quite reasonable I assume to have the tensile strength vary by species.

As far as it being the next "big" thing - the only reason I said that is that sales in bamboo related industries (not just bicycles) have apparently seen a big jump this past year for some reason. To me that's either the sign of a big fad or something beginning to catch on. We'll see.

Btw - I have no attachment to bamboo being uses as a frame material, I just find it interesting that it is seeing growth in the cycling industry. Calfee indicates there has been a big jump in sales this year from previous years.

I do admit I'm curious now and wouldn't mind riding one to check it out.

Wooden Bender says kiss my shiney metal...oh wait

I'll get one -- This is the frame that I would not have any qualms if it is made in Asia.

It sounds like a good idea...........

Until you're attacked by a roving pack of panda bears.

You must hate an awful lot of bikes.

Cool. My next bike might have a sticker that says "Grown in China"

No wooden rims? Booo!!!

No. But I thought it was funny how they paired the bike with Topolino wheels for the bamboo effect.

I'd love to have one. Makes complete sense, if the claims about it are true.

Anyone seen the 'bamboo composit' bike from Brano Meres: https://www.bmeres.com/bcframe.htm

One cool aspect is that we don't have to worry about the airline industry hogging all the bamboo production supply...

Forget about water damage - what happens if you ride to close to an open flame?

In terms of it being the next big thing, it seems the question is not it's suitability for bicycle frames, but it's suitability for mass production. Maybe you could do a bonded lug design for reasonably cheap, but even then, I would imagine the cost to source and select appropriate canes would be much much higher than manufacturing metal ones.

Bruno Mares bamboo composite on the other hand could probably be produced for a lot less.

Even with inexpensive Chinese hands doing the work, the Calfee design will probably always remain a boutique one. Of course, I'm no industrial engineer, so I could be way way off.