Bamboo Bike Frame.

Step 8 Ride!

Get on your bike and move your feet in circles. Be happy. Don't die.
Credit me and tell everyone you meet how amazing I am when they ask about your bike.

Comments

[Minneapolis Z]

Beautiful work!  So how is this bike holding up now?  Any concerns about durability?  It seems like that would be the primary drawback to bamboo frames

[mmann1123]

Looks great.  Everyone thinking about building a bamboo bike should look at http://bamboobike.wordpress.com/

There is plenty of detail on how to choose bamboo, how to make the hemp and epoxy joints (like calfee), how to choose bottom brakets, specifics about working with aluminum and steel, how to use an awesome online mitering pattern tool etc etc.  Check it out. 

[Minneapolis Z]

Nice, thanks for the link--is that a PVC frame jig in that pic?

[mmann1123]

Yep PVC, but there is more detail on at the site.

[ogion]

Indeed excellent. This is one of the few real "practical" applications I've seen in green thinking. Now that's for sure renewable energy right there.

Though, the resin could have been furan (aka furane or furfuran) instead of epoxy. The metal pieces I understand, although there's a wood called Pockenholts (scientific name is Guaiacum officinale) which is one of the hardest woods there is. It's actually used as bearing brckets in the local steel plant. =) Ebony is hard enough as well to work as bearing surfaces, though it's pain i a** to work these woods.

Nonetheless, excellent DIY project. 5 of 5 stars from me.

[xman]

Wow, I was wondering if there were any alternatives to the epoxy and the metal and you show up and tell me exactly what they are! Thanks! However I did a quick google, and it appears that furan is very hard to work with, "a colorless, flammable, highly volatile liquid with a boiling point close to room temperature" and "toxic and may be carcinogenic". Not to say epoxy isn't carcinogenic, but it is fairly stable at room temperature. Do you know how to work with furan as a replacement for epoxy resin? Also, the trees that yield extremely hard wood appear to be mostly endangered... so perhaps some good old steel isn't so bad? What do you think?

[snotty]

I used some kind of non-toxic carpentry glue and hemp string. The glue was about half the price of epoxy to boot.

A chemical engineer told me that the two components of epoxy are toxic on their own but fairly safe once mixed and hardened.

My problem is lateral flex. I have a lot of torsion around the bottom bracket when I stand on one pedal. Is this normal? Can anyone think of a design that would address torsion?

[Duckism]

I really don't understand about that metal thing... but hey if thats such bad thing for the environment maybe next time you can forge all the metal parts out of melting tin cans by the power of the sun? a magnifying glass maybe?

[ogion]

Making steel is a very dirty process, involving large quantities of energy and pollution (You ever been to a steel plant?) and making metals such as aluminum is even more dirty and energy consuming. The woods I suggested here are as hard (and sometimes harder) than steel, lighter than steel and they grow by thenselves. Is that what you ment?

[Duckism]

yes exactly what I mean... sometimes under the great wheel of the green movement people don't actually make any sense any more.... from the look of this project it's impossible to replace all the metal part with whatever wood you are talking about. even if you could how much more time and skill would require for this project? let alone the tools that'd require for it...unless if there are company out there thats already selling the ready made parts out of wood. it's just seems really impractical I think it'd be way too expensive it'd most likely triple or quadruple the price for this project. It just seems really unrealistic to think that it's possible for our society to live with out metal. Unlike plastic, most metal are harmless to the environment and it's extremely easy to recycle. I am all for cutting down the energy consumtion for every product we make, but you also have to keep in mind that there is always the practical side that we have to think about.... after all the end product are used by people. if it has to come to a point that people can no longer afford it then we are just wasting our time.

[ogion]

Any carpenter or cabinetmaker can manufacture these parts, and there are tools and machines for it as well....

[ogion]

Actually...

I used to work in a plastics factory (mostly fiberglass construction for industry applications) and we also worked with a development project concerning Furan as resin in an environment project. As this project is largely classified as of yet, I can only tell you basically what I've said so far, but Furan IS in the works to be commercially available as a "green" option to polyester and epoxi resins.

The one thing with it as far as I am concerned, is that it gets a brownish color, and looks like crap unless it's painted or some such. And it smells rancid! =P The styrene fumes from the polyester resins are perfume compared.

Anyways. Furan, as a pure compound, is certainly what you describe, but it is a working resin to date, although hard to come by and fairly expensive as well. Give it a few years though....

[xman]

Cool! Even more reason to be excited about the future!

[sumrandom1]

coolest thing ever,  i have seen on the green channel (year right green) when they used to still show stuff that was actually interesting when it first started about a company that creates bamboo bikes, but that was like for $7000, that totally turned me off to the idea, but with these easy steps i know i can do one myself, but i will probably do a BMX frame since i prefer those kind of bikes, thanks for the post, when end up doing it i will definitely link it to yours,  thanks for the inspiration and for being green (minus the chemical epoxy, but i understand) :)

[DreamTheEndless]

On a similar project I saw, the hemp joints were done a little larger than needed and then sanded down after they cured. This was a little more streamlined and also the look was just fantastic. Give it a try and see how it works. Great project.

[Duckism]

great project tho btw.... I love the part where you put where you get everything from on the site.... I already got some bamboo this summer but I just don't have the place to build the bike tho. I also don't have a jig where did you get yours?

[noahspurrier]

Yawn... go watch TV. Not much risk there.

[Duckism]

did you know that constantly sitting by the TV can increase the risk of heart disease. I really don't know if you are being sarcastic or you are talking about yourself going to watch TV....

[algebraprodigy]

Excellent!