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Hmm...that looks cool.
I was going through my list of Google Reader items when I stumbled across this, a radical new design for human powered transport that is made almost entirely out of bamboo. This got me thinking...if something like this can be essentially grown from bamboo, can you make a traditional bike with similar materials? -
Hmm...that looks doable.
After talking about possible project ideas in class, I remembered that cool bamboo bike thing from the internet. I promptly did a quick search of the rest of the internet and found this article about some guys in New York who build bamboo bikes for a living. From the pictures, the design seemed fairly simple and easy enough to mimic. -
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Research
For my research, I consulted dozens of websites and books regarding bamboo, bike construction, or both. It turned out to be not as rare of a topic as I had first expected. There are many different techniques one can use in building a bamboo bike, and I compiled my research to find the best combination of these to meet my requirements. -
EQ Formed
It took a lot of thinking but my final EQ came out to be this:
"Giving consideration to cost, safety, practicality, and eco-friendliness, how can I most effectively build a bicycle using “green” materials like bamboo? How will a bamboo bike compare to a metal-framed one?" It's a bit lengthy but it certainly drives the point home -
Annotated Bibliography Due
I did a lot of research on my project in the first few months, and most of it was on the internet. I couldn't find any book that mentioned making bamboo bikes, but a couple that turned out to be helpful in other ways. One of these books was "The Way Things Work" which is a very simple yet elegant illustrated encyclopedia of just about anything you can think of. -
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The Great Bamboo Ordering Debacle
The website I found for ordering my bamboo was called Bamboo Habitat and was sourced out of Pennsylvania by a guy named Jim, who was very polite and understanding of my bamboo needs. I emailed him requesting more info and eventually a specific amount of Blue Henon Bamboo on his website. After I received no invoice or confirmation of the order for 2 weeks, I heard back from him saying that it would be another week til my bamboo would even be prepped for shipping. Naturally, I was annoyed. -
Action Plan Finalized
With the majority of my research done, I now knew what I had to do for the last month and a half to finish my project in time. Ideally, I would have been done building by the beginning of May, but due to multiple setbacks, this was simply impossible. -
Bamboo Ordered (finally)
After being delayed by Jim, I finally set in the order for 4 poles of Japanese Timber Bamboo. Strength-wise, it was a close second to my preferred Blue Henon, but it would do. -
Interview with Ray St. Hiliare
I interviewed Ray at his bike shop in Maynard. He was very helpful and friendly about the whole thing and even offered to help me with some of the rebuilding process after the frame was done. I gleaned lots of helpful information from this interview. The reason I chose to interview him was because my dad had purchased about 6 or so bikes from him in the past (not all at once) and he had come highly recommended. -
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Frame construction
After the bamboo finally arrived after much confusion, I set to work building the frame out of bamboo. This involved countless hours of measuring, cutting, recutting, mitering, fitting, tacking, sanding, scraping, and unfortunately, waiting. -
Bamboo Arrives!
At last! I could finally get on with my project! Unfortunately, the bamboo was slightly scratched when it arrived wrapped in only a bit of bubble wrap and some paper. Seriously? At least it was all intact. Unfortunately again, it was crunch time. -
Building chain stays
This was the first part of the frame that was replaced with bamboo. It was a bit tricky because the bamboo just barely fit over the metal tubes at some parts. This would become a constand obstacle throughout the building process. I had to use my Dremel to sand away the inside of the bamboo so that it would fit properly. -
Building seat tube, seat stays, and top tube
These parts had to be removed from the bike all at once, because where they intersected, there would be no metal part of the frame there. The mitering here was very tricky and required lots of patience and very small adjustments. -
First carbon fiber joint built
This was an immensely difficult process. I first had to rough up the surface of the bamboo with a rasp so that the epoxy could soak in better, then wrap those areas in lengths of carbon fiber tow. I had to ensure that the fibers were going in all directions to ensure maximum strength. I then wrapped the whole area very tightly in electrical tape, sticky side up, while it dried so that the whole concoction was very dense and strong. -
Building the down tube
This was the last big part of the frame to go on, and it was by far the most difficult. I had to miter down both ends to the correct length, fit, and inside diameter. Then I had to fit it over two sharp pieces of metal without breaking the rest of the frame. -
Building up the joints
This was a very long and drawn out part of the building process. There was a lot of coating, wrapping, coating, wrapping, etc. Since the epoxy dried so quickly, I could only use each paintbrush once for about 20 minutes before it started to solidify. I also had to wear a gas mask, protective gloves, and keep as little skin exposed as possible. It was exhausting. -
Sanding, sanding, and more sanding
After the joints were to my liking, I had to sand down the frame to prep it for all the finishing touches. In keeping with proper sanding techniques, I did it all by hand, using at first very coarse grit paper and then gradually finer and finer sandpaper until the whole frame was smooth as silk. Needless to say, this took ages. -
Final Touches
Now that the frame was sanded and the joints were strong, I needed to make the bike look good. For the joints, I coated all of them in one last layer of epoxy to give them some extra protection and to add a nice glossy look. I painted every exposed metal part of the bike black to match the joints. After that, I applied a very thick coat of spar varnish to the bamboo, not only giving it a great slick look, but also protecting it from the elements. -
Completion of the final product
The frame was finally done and now all I had to do was build up the bike and I'd be finished! This was much easier said than done as I ran into several issues with tight tolerances, the biggest of which was that with the original tire, the back wheel would rub against the seat stay. I had to buy a much smaller tire on very short notice from Ray, but it worked, and before long, my bike was done.
