Darth Lefty 

They also made a pycrete boat but I've so far seen no one seriously suggesting either lead or pycrete for a bike frame!

rex615

Maybe for an Arctic fatbike.

Philasteve

I had saw these a long time ago, I don't like them at all. The same way I feel about bamboo skateboards. I wish I would have been able to see/ride one at the Philly Expo but that's just out of curiosity. For way less than $600-$800 you can "passionately" build a whole bike and have fun doing it without having to hacksaw and glue a frame together. What happens if you buy one, rent the tools and then completely **** it up?

bmwjoe

The national civil engineers society has an annual competition for concrete canoes:
Concrete Canoe National Qualifying Teams | ASCE
The canoe must be 100% concrete and must float when swamped. The mix has a certain percentage of hollow glass beads as aggregate to make it float. They allow fiberglass in the mix for strength. It is a very challenging competition.

I doubt concrete would make a very good bike frame. It would be a challenge to make one though!

Ride Safe,

Joe

srinath.the.man

Have these been tested against ... I dunno termites ???
Bamboo gets brittle with age.
I have seen people fight with bamboo sticks (not unlike the kung fu fighting with big sticks joke of 1992's brandon lee movie Rapid fire) and one of them hit the other and he fractures a wrist. Then the stick gets put away, and a year or so later, it will shatter when dropped.
A bamboo frame will work as long as every year or 2 you replace all the bamboo parts.
Then dont even get me started on the termites and carpenter ants ... not to mention panda's that think you have set out a buffet for them. Though Panda's prefer green bamboo.
Rattan holds up a lot better, but well, it is solid and likely to weigh a lot more for the strength of chrome-moly steel.
Cool.
Srinath.

nightfly

I want Chevette's paper bike from Virtual Light.

Canaboo

So much misinformation...

RoderWrench

2016 POTY nominee

TimothyH

I'm sticking with the Invisible Boatmobile myself.

Unkle Rico

These guys already found it..

srinath.the.man

Where ??? I don't see any. LOL.
But Yes bamboo dry rots, just like any other wood, and termites can eat it. Is it their favorite over the other flavors you have in a house ??? no idea.
Thanks.
Srinath.

Unkle Rico

Seems like after doing some research that bikes that utilize bamboo in any form are generally clear-coated to prevent and sort of rotting etc. The bamboo is also throughly dried out so that there is no moisture present when the bike is being built.

Im sure there's more to it but that was just googling for 3minutes

Canaboo

Even more misinformation. Termites in finished "wood" products are a rare thing in most of the world. They are rare in unfinished wood too.
Dry rot doesn't actually exist either. You need wet rot first.
You are right that you have no idea though.

srinath.the.man

Leave it outside and I can guarantee you in 2 yrs it would be not safe to ride. Seal or no seal. You cant seal it either. It wont prevent it from drying cos it dries internally, its hollow in the middle.
I've seen it used for a 1000 things. From Houses to weapons to everything in between. In all situations it get replaced every 2-10 yrs.
It is an exotic material only to the western world. In India and much of south east asia its a material of convenience and abundance, and really does not have a real permanence.
The instant they can afford they get out of bamboo roofed houses.
If you're using it as a weapon, in ~2 yrs it would be replaced. As a house roof 5-8 yrs. And they are 2 different species of bamboo.
Try this cheap experiment. Buy a ft long 1" diameter bamboo stick out of ebay and sit it in your back yard.
Every 3 months or so, hit it with a small metal object like a 1/2" ratchet handle. Note when you hear it rattle when you hit it. There its DOA as a bicycle frame or as a weapon ala Rapid fire.
I'd guess 2 yrs.
Steel would be 10 yrs if painted, aluminum 100 yrs bamboo 2 yrs.

Cool.
Srinath.

Canaboo

None of that means anything in the context of a bike. Your "drying out" thoughts are particularly meaningless. You want it as dry as possible and you seal it inside and out to keep it dry. I have a bike that was made 8 years ago and it is in like new condition.
Bamboo flyrods 100 years old are still in use.
2 species? Try hundreds.

Do you regularly beat your other frames with a half inch ratchet and leave them in the backyard??

TimothyH

I just saw Bear Grylls on the BBC make a hammock, a spear and a sailboat out of bamboo.

Worse comes to worse and you could always use your bike frame for survival.

srinath.the.man

100's - yes. Bamboo is basically a grass. But there is bamboo that can be as fat as a ft across (not seen one of those just heard of it). The rods are the thin solid kind. Those have no risk of drying out from the inside.
The 1" - 2" dia kind is usually thick wall but hollow. Those may be fully bridged @ the joints. The bridged kind is what they fight with. Those are supposedly the best for impact resistance and stiffness. This is abundant in India. I have played with these as a kid. These wont last but 1-2 yrs in the weather.
The larger dia are hollow and the joints are usually still 1/2 way bridged. These also wont last but 1-2 yrs in the weather. These are used as roofing supports in india.
Now I can imagine there is a bamboo that has the best qualities of all 3. I have not seen it.

However you cant say this is a miracle material, and say it has to be kept indoors. Lets see this paradox. Road and whatever is dirty. I wear shoes outside, but when I step in the house, I leave those shoes in the cupboard (or my wife chews my head off) to keep the outside dirt out of my house. Tires of the bike - same thing. Not keeping it in the house unless it was never ever put on the road.
Then you dont bash it with a wrench, you are trying to get a nice "tinggggggg" out of it. Or a nice taaaakkkkk out of bamboo.
Cool.
Srinath.

motrheadsroadie

horticulture the **** up

Canaboo

You keep mentioning drying out. That doesn't do anything detrimental. It's supposed to be dry. The fact that it is hollow is totally meaningless. it's moisture escaping into the surrounding air that dries stuff out, not the mount of air within a typical bike tube taking it all up. That show lack of understanding of the whole idea.
Bamboo flyrods are now made with a hollow center.
My bike is not kept indoors in pampered conditions. It's treated like a typical valued bike.
Presumably you don't toss a top end frame of any sort in the back yard.

Would you use a tube of any bike material as a fighting stick and expect it to be durable?

srinath.the.man

There is dry and there is dry. For example, you dry a Log for a log house to ~17% moisture, and for furniture, to about 8-9%. You dry it past 3-4%, the thing will disintegrate.
The inside isn't air tight even in a fully bridged bamboo. It will dry from the inside. They could have drilled the bridge with a small hole and coated it inside as well. I dont know about that.
I leave all the bike outside. If it hit the road, it stays outside. Nothing breaks the $200 mark in my current ride in bicycles though.

Cool.
Srinath.

Darth Lefty 

That's why paint was invented

Kindaslow

Dry paint or wet paint?

If dry, how dry?

Darth Lefty 

You'll just have to wait and see

Canaboo

You still don't get how drying works. The interior is not a little micro Mojave desert with the capacity to pull all moisture into it. It's the ambient humidity that governs drying.

It won't actually disintegrate at that moisture content but that's an unrealistic level practically anywhere and it would need to be unsealed to do so.
As someone who only rides a 200 dollar bike I'm not even sure why you are discussing higher end possibilities anyway.

Kindaslow

Probably more interesting than watching bamboo dry, or where this thread went....