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Lockdown has me wanting to spend some £ and have a new/interesting bike project (I'm also wondering about belt drive, a disc road bike, or a LLS MTB, threads for another day but any input welcome). Not purely for the sake of it tho, as I am happy with my fLOLtilla of steeds.
Has anybody got experience of a Bamboo bike?
They are claimed to weigh somewhere between steel and ti/carbon which is vague as, so probably meaningless. They are claimed to have great feel also. I think you can pretty much customise the geometry too.
Can't remembert the posters name but at least one person on here built his own bike from bamboo and made a huge/interesting thread on it. I think he learnt a lot from the build and intended to make another, improved one.
I can't use the search function in afraid but it's on here for sure.👍
Pretty sure there was a magazine article a tear or two back when one if the staff did one?
Yep, I'll try to find the thread for you...
Here you go.
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/new-bike-day-just-need-to-build-it-mk2/
There's also a link to my first bamboo thread in the opening post.
Weight depends on a few things - joint material, skill of building and type of bamboo, and quality/material of the contact points.
As for ride feel. My first felt great but was very flexy. The carbon one the second time around was much much better - get as much stiffness in the chainstays as you can. Ride feel is like a steel bike with less road buzz.
I will say however that my damp garage cracked both bikes in the end.....
Wonderful, thanks all.
@monkeyboyjc, I have a light steel Shand HT and a carbon Cannondale Supersix, I am guessing the ride quality won't be as nice as either? - tho different as you say.
Ride quality will very much depend on the builders skill - the first one I made flexed like anything under sprint. The carbon one was great though. I guess one advantage is that you can always add/remove material at a later date.
The carbon one was cirtainly the most comfortable 'stiff' road bike I've had, even with A rigid fork and 25mm tyres fitted it had a great ride quality - Better than my current steel bike and more comfortable than my old carbon Dolan.
Here is the link for when it was done by the mag as well.
@monkeyboyjc have you got the details of the carbon tube and seatpost arrangement you used on your second build?
The seat tube on mine has cracked and while it's still fine to ride (currently strapped with FibreFix, natch) I'm thinking of swapping it out.
Ride quality: I've never had a carbon bike but it's a lot more comfortable than aluminium and feels more planted than steel. I've had no issues with flex and it's absolutely my favourite bike.
@gecko76 Tbh the carbon tube was bought on eBay, the ID was to fit the shim supplied by bamboo bicycle club - I can't remember the Exact spec other than I was a cheapskate and went with a 500mm which was a little short for the application. I didn't bother putting anything between the carbon and Ali to stop corrosion either so I fully expected it to fail, but two years on it's still going strong.
Nice, thanks.
For the OP, the build was really enjoyable, but the potential for further fettling should also not be discounted. Bamboo is a great material to work with.
The build thread on here out me right off.
It looked alot of work assuming everything went well.
I bought a steel frame instead. Deffinely heavier. Deffinely easier.
My memory from the various threads and articles I've seen is that it looks like a huge amount of work to get something that looks good. Loadsa fun though. I think anything I did would look like a Flintstones bike 🙁
@gecko76 is it possible to add bosses (I have used rivnuts in the past) or customise geometry? I could look at the kits but it's more fun discussing it.
Also I saw an add with the lugs photographed right by each other and I thought a cute kids bike could be made also.
The bamboo bicycle club do a couple of kits...
The normal one involves a bit more faff, but good if you're more hands-on. Think it's £335
Then they do one with pre-made carbon lugs - head tube, BB, toptube/seatstay junction, drop-outs.
Looks a lot neater, has internal routing, and can done in a day or two. That's £425.
Hey. I used wood insert nuts to fit a bottle cage to the down tube (and, later, cable guides to the bottom of it after the glued-on one's fell off). Dead simple to fit - drill hole, counter sink slightly, prep with tung oil and screw in with allen key. Solid. I think rivnuts might crush the wall of the bamboo. Not sure I'd do the same with the seat/chainstays for e.g. mudguard mounts though unless they'd been reinforced with dowelling or similar (which in retrospect I wish I'd done).
As above, the new kits with pre-formed (3d printed I think) lugs look good but the 'old way' with expoxy soaked hemp is actually very straightforward and if you want to customise the geometry that would be the way to go, although having said that just talk to them because they can probably sort you out with exactly what you want.
If you want something a bit less exotic but with more readily available materials you could try making a modified Hoopy.
https://www.woodenwidget.com/hoopy.htm
I'm planning using the same techniques but to build something with more conventional geometry.