How to Build a Bamboo Bicycle

I saw a picture of a bamboo bike and decided I had to have one. I found out that professionally built bamboo frames cost a few thousand dollars so I decided to build one myself.

I had a lot of fun and I hope that you can make one too by following these instructions.

The bike I made is a track bike for commuting to work. The bicycle was inspired by Craig Calfee who makes much nicer bamboo bikes. I really wanted something with a minimum of fancy technology and carbon fiber (although I sprang for the carbon fork). I used epoxy and hemp fibers on all the joints (no pun intended). The track bike also makes it easy in that it is a very simple bike - no gears, cable routings, rear brake or derailers.

Disclaimer: Death or serious injury can result from a bicycle frame failure. Using new and untested techniques is risky. Be smart.

Some links to check out before you get started:
Brano's instructable on carbon and bamboo bike building
Craig Calfee's bamboo bike project
Calfee bamboo bikes
Bike Forest BikeCAD
The forum for info on bamboo and heat treating it

The basic steps:
1. Figure out what type of bicycle you want
2. Get all of the parts and bamboo
3. Heat treat the bamboo
4. Tack it all together
6. Epoxy it all together
7. Build up bike
8. Ride off into sunset

Step 1 Pick the bicycle frame you want to build

If you are a real bike nerd you will love this step. You are now a frame designer and get to think about things like bottom bracket drop, chain stay length and head tube angle.

I suggest using an existing frame as a template (if you have one you really like).

If you feel ready to test your skills of an artist go to www.bikeforest.com and use the BIKECAD program. It is a free, online frame designing program.

Another good source of information is the Paterek Manual, which is actually for steel frames. Paterek goes into detail on how to size a frame based on body measurements and what each change in geometry means as far as road handling goes.

Once you have your geometry picked out draw your frame on a large piece of paper.

Comments

[davmaldo]

where did you get the head tube from? you only mention that you tried bamboo which did not work. was it from a road bike i assume? also, lets pretend i don't know a whole lot about the differences: why, if you got the dropouts from a BMX, couldn't you also get the bottom bracket from it as well? are they that dissimilar? thanks.

[snotty]

Any frame builders' supply has all sorts of head tubes. I chop mine out of dead bikes sometimes though.

[foxes76133]

Hey Ayasbek, I have some questions I'd like to ask about this project about "Heat Treating Bamboo".
I was wondering what tools you used for the project, and how you used them. I would like to experiment, but due to my finances, my experiments would also have to be useful, because I don't have enough money to buy bamboo in bulk amounts, and use some of it only to ruin it because of experimentation.
I've been trying to work on a project of my own as well, but not making a bamboo bike, it's actually to make shafts for Arrows for my bow. So I'd like to know more. Otherwise, I have to do a search and destroy all over Goggle just to find a dealer in my local area just for Heat Tempered Bamboo.

[sephiroth67]

Hope it's not TOO late, but B2 sounds like a fine name...fits your description of a stealth bomber, and you can just say it stands for bamboo =D

[mykall]

hey there,
amazing job you did there, you have my greatest respect.
We were thinking of trying to build one in our bicycle cooperative, but the fella we are getting hemp from needs to know what kind of hemp fibre we need, how thin, and how clean, and also of course how much.
I was wondering if you could possibly help me with some advice?
how much did you use on one bicycle and what sort of hemp were you using?
look forward to your help

[fgunnar]

Out of curiosity, how much does it weigh?

[geekonabike]

The Woody

[EngineerJakit]

So if you were to build something out of either green or heated bamboo, which would be the easier to work with? mainly with flexibility and hardness.

[mad doctor]

How did you get your bottom bracket shell out of the bike? Most of the bikes I have looked at have their bottom bracket shells welded on.

[frisbeechamp1983]

can this be used to make a hardtail mountain bike?

[snotty]

Yeah, bamboo bikes are awesome. Make sure to build your lugs strong and use Tonkin or Iron bamboo or you may have problems.

[snotty]

Yes, that's a bamboo wind turbine in behind me there: http://www.instructables.com/id/Wind-Turbine-Blades-from-Bamboo/

[willrandship]

Calc for blog cred...:P

Cool idea, but I'd be very afraid to ride it, myself. Even if a professional built it :P

[snotty]

Fear is scary stuff eh. Seriously though; I made a bamboo bike really badly and it broke in lots of places but it never fell apart. It just got wiggly.

[NetReaper]

Could you use a second metal piece under the seat that you put at the bottom? It seems like it's the same angles and it would be sturdier.

[Dylan Roberts]

The Bambicycle or The Bambike. Yeah...

[rudi.carfell]

Where have you bougth your hemps? And whats important to look at when I buy them?

[a918bmxr]

i have seen a frame break and the rider got a huge gash across his stomach from where the top and bottom tubes attached to the head tube... it wasn't pretty D-8

[Dandie]

I think It is not a very good idea to build a bike frame of bamboo because It’s impossible to assure strong and safe joint sticks, especially in the headset, one of the most stressed pieces. I have seen more than once headset breakages and I can assure that the consequences for the drivers have been horribly serious, they hit the pavement with their faces,……. noses, jawbones, teeth smashed. I think this is not a matter to play with.

[Oxzane68]

No offesnse, but I built one, and it shattered.

[SirRidesalot]

http://www.ridepanda.comYou should also check out what some guys from Colorado are doing at http://www.ridepanda.com. Their company, Panda Bicycles, looks like it's making some sweet bamboo bikes with steel lugs.

[thepelton]

Neat! I live in Colorado Springs! I may be up for a field trip. I wonder if there is any way to do the spokes in smaller bamboo?

[thepelton]

Never mind! If you look at the calfeedesign.com website, you see that very thing done in Africa. It makes for a stronger back wheel that can carry larger loads than the standard wire spokes. 8>)

[jentran]

For the headset, perhaps you could cut one so that there are nodes at either end to increase stiffness. There are more nodes located at the bottom of a bamboo culm than at the top. I'm not sure how thick the walls of the headset you tried was, that could help too. Some other people sprayed expanding form successfully to increase stiffness to the seat tube.

[mmann1123]

Hey everyone I have found the large majority of 'how to' sites lacking in specificity. I am putting together a blog with a lot more detail and experiments together come check it out at http://bamboobike.wordpress.com/.

There are a lot of pictures and good details on how to choose materials, how to miter better, even how to make a hemp fiber head tube etc. Hope it is helpful.

[Nkevin90]

Okay, hopefully the last question; I really messed up on my headtube angle (but I couldn't help but laugh at it), so how would one go about taking all that crap off? I read up about sodium hydroxide or soaking stuff in acetone, but I'm not sure how great that either'd be for the bamboo itself. Oh right, and I used a steel tube by the way.

[artodoyo]

very nice, its a handy craftman's work.
I've been working with bamboo for last 5 years.  You may try this bamboo species, its very "rugged", you can bend and shape it as you like.
http://www.axelhandicraft.com

[snotty]

Maybe try carefully chopping off the lashing with an angle grinder.

[bikefridaywalter]

that DOES look good. should have extended the seatstays to the top tube for the old GT Triple Triangle effect :D

[ayasbek]

Wow! Looks good except for that one thing! I am so glad you got this far. Here is an idea - try get a different fork. Do you have a local frame builder you can speak to who could make you something? There are many old steel forks that have a good amount of rake/drag or whatever the offset from the headset is called. Another idea is to get a 650 wheel (sometimes called triathlon wheel). It is smaller and may allow you to ride your bike. It would also give you a super track star look but will lower your bottom bracket a bit. Either way be careful. If you really want to remove the hemp epoxy I think I would try a hacksaw or grinder. Chemicals seem like a bad idea.

[Aklash, The hunchback]

 Damn, that is a nice looking bike

[zakiuz]

 Do cut the parts before heat treat or do you heat treat everything and then you cut ?

[urwatuis]

This is an awsome project! Before I found this one I was scanning other bike projects and saw Instrucables for building a recumbent bike and bike trailers and my first thought after seeing the bamboo bike is why didn't anyone build a bamboo recumbent bike?!?!?! with a trailer??? Seems like such a natural progression, no? Maybe I'll give that a try when warmer weather rolls in. BTW I like the idea of using hemp to bind everything together. Great idea!

[sessica]

 me and my boyfriend made one this past summer, you can click the link to my facebook album of pictures, we did some steps differently, and ran into different problems, we plan on building a couple more now that we know what we're dealing with.
www.facebook.com/album.php

[jesus jelly]

 BAMBOO BOMBER>>>> great idea for a name....

[jerandemma]

This project looks awesome! I just signed up because of this bike. Has anyone thought of using lugs to join the bamboo? It would look good if you could epoxy the bamboo to the lugs, and it would be strong. All quality vintage bikes are lugged for good reason. Any thoughts?

[bikefridaywalter]

i'm curious about this too-- i'm gonna see if i can track down some carbon lugs like they use for ti/carbon frames. i'll let you know if i can find anything :D

[jerandemma]

Sounds Great!

[magicalnumber12]

i am toying with the idea of lugs as well. i think it would work well and have a cleaner look. this is a project of mine for the winter. i am thinking about useing kevlar or carbonfiber at the joints as well. here is a bunch of good links

http://www.bikelugs.com/

http://www.cycle-frames.com/bicycle-frame-tubing/home.php

http://www.framebuilding.com/index.htm

http://www.gaerlan.com/bikeparts/bike.html

Have fun

[bikefridaywalter]

cool well life is busy so if you beat me to to the punch, make sure to post some pix!