Hello everyone, missed me?
Anyway, I'm taking a little longer to lay up the fiber beacause I want it to be perfect. I'll let pictures do the talking:

The frame after main reinforcement. There will be another layer of fiber for aesthetics before finishing;



The fork tube;



The bottom. There will be more layers here;



From another angle;



The top section. Already sanded for the final layup that will cover a bigger portion of the seat stays. As soon as I measure the break tube size and position with the weels on;



The left rear Dropout. I'll sand it today and find out if its tight enough;



Aaaaand the right one, witch was compressed after lay up;



This is the reason working with fiber is a pain in the a$$. It would be easier with a Carbon tape but thats part of my challenge;

Get some electrical tape and wrap the lugs after you've applied the glass and resin. That will pack it all down flat and make things much neater and stronger.
It will peel off cleanly after the Epoxy cures.
Just make sure you start wrapping the tape up the bamboo well away from the wet Epoxy to anchor it and then just spiral it down to the lug. That way you're not just spinning the materials around and pulling everything out of place.

I wish you told me that 2 days ago! I figured it out after a while but didn't use electrical tape. I'll take some pictures tomorrow, maybe after I finish the work with fiber.

Sorry. You can always rasp and sand most of it away and apply a second layer.

wow man your really inspiring me to start working on my first bike project. Not building my own frame, but I will be taking a 71 Peugeot frame and sanding and repainting it to my likings... I cant wait to see the final product, keep up the good work!

Hey guys, guess who took me for a test drive on my garage today!


I'll apply a layer of GelCoat to it soon.

Well done ... post a few detailed photos before and after the gel coat

Was not sure how you were going to streagthen the ends untill I got to the end of the thread. Are you going to smooth out the fiberglass and paint them so thay could look like one piece? that would look nice.

BTW, Carbon fiber and kevlar are tough. But, would jbweld used as a epoxy applied to carbon fiber make it that much more stronger? has anyone done this?

Epoxy used for composite construction has to wet out the reinforcing material. JB weld does not wet out fabric and in fact I don't believe it has strength properties any greater than other epoxies.
There is a reason they have such a broad range of specific epoxies for composite construction.

More pics?

Ppl been asking for pictures and though I didn't had much time to work on it latelly, here it goes:

Full shot of the bike



Detail on my broken shifter support. The problem was that the hole for the screw to enter wasn't deep enough so as I screwed it in harder, it was pushing the hole thing out.



Detail on my improvised dropouts. They worked out fine.



The "cable guide" under the BB. When I apply the GelCoat I will dig it deeper.



And that's why I regret integrating the BB in the frame, I ended up using a kinda narrow one.



The seat part. I'm proud of the brake fit, its working great.



Front section. Maybe my top tube has too thin walls (I used ~2mm), I don't trust sitting on it but it sure looks beautiful.



It will look great after I apply GelCoat to the lugs and varnish the bamboo.

And for the Bamboo 2.0 I'm designing my custom metal lugs. It will be a mountain bike and the lugs have 3mm walls (except for the seatpost clamp area) what do you think?







And finally the yet unfinished dropouts. Does anyone know the threading pattern for the caliper mounting holes on a disc brake system?
For me, it looks elegant.


It will use 5mm thick 6061 Alu. And the next set will have a integrated seatpost clamp at the respective part.


Thoughts, suggestions?
My best.

Sweet, how are u going to make the lugs? CNC?? casting? Wonder if a set of grafftek lugs will work fine in your built.

I'm having them made for me, CNC I guess. I designed the lugs specially for the chosen bamboo width with a margin to make heavier or lighter bikes.
Have in mind that nobody sells lugs, tubes or any kind of frame parts here in Brasil.

I know, years ago the brazilian team bikes where made by a master builder in chile. There u have a niche

Hey guys!
Better late than never right?!

check this out!
theres more pics of her in my flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/malk4vi...7624407236902/

Mountain bike coming soon!

Looks great! Are you still planing on making a fork out of the really wide diameter bamboo? I'm interested to see if that would work.