I hope it won't break...

[KayOs]

I've made something again, or rather I'm still working on it...

It all started with gardening, a fire bowl, stick bread and a few beers.
My wife obviously listened carefully when a couple of mates and I were chatting about the suitability of wood and bamboo for bicycle frames and I mentioned that I would like to try building one someday.

So her birthday present for me was a bamboo frame .... that I still had to build myself.

So here we go.

After weeks of mulling over the range of use and geometries, I finally had a sketch ready.
I wanted an MTB, nothing harsh but suitable for fun in the forest and with relatively modern standards to have many options for parts.
So disc brakes and a tapered head tube were set. I didn't use a thru-axle at the rear as the semi-horizontal dropouts were readily available and suitable for a singlespeed without much effort.
Stiffness and performance will be criminally neglected in this project anyway.

Now the tubes were chosen and had to be cut to size.

 

[grantoury]

I was wondering about this, finally the reveal. I have made coffee and am sitting down.

 

[grantoury]

Playing suitable music.

 

[novocaine]

putting down the matches to read this......... for now, mwah ha ha ha.

 

[KayOs]

Thanks guys! The project has been going on for quite a while now as it was only 2 days a week, I made some mistakes and the holiday period came in between.

The next step was to carve and file and grind and peel (nothing sticks to the smooth surface of the bamboo canes, which will come in handy... that's why the canes have to be peeled where the resin is supposed to stick later on) until everything fitted together well enough.

The bottom bracket shell and seat tube are recycled parts from an old MTB, the head tube and dropouts are new.

I also glued in some threaded pieces for the cable holders.

 

[PanoIgano]

Woodwork and bikes, can there be a better combination? Not in my world...so signing in for this one too!

P.S: Also, bamboo wood, that's where reall butting is!

 

[KayOs]

Bamboo is fascinating, strong and light at the same time.
However, the surface is also quite hard and not so easy to work with. At least for me, which resulted in a few bloody fingers (so actually everything the same as always when I try to build something).

You also have to be very careful when clamping the tubes for sawing or similar, as you can crush them quite quickly.

 

[KayOs]

So after the main frame came the rear triangle. A little more carving was required here.

Sadly I didn't take more pics of the seat- and chainstays being carved. But I took a few pics of some bikes that were already built.
Two cargo bikes, one even with ovalised tubes...

...and a daily driver that is in use for some years now.


Now the individual tubes could be glued together. Two-component epoxy resin with a kind of cellulose filler was used for this.

Really impressive glue this stuff...
Looks like play doh but it is really strong.

 

[KayOs]

After curing, everything was filed and sanded.
Imperfections were removed in a second pass.
This bonding holds everything together temporarily and serves as a support surface for the fabric so that there are no creases or air pockets later on. At least that's the plan.



Looks like a bike frame to me...
Time for a beer!

 

[novocaine]

have to admit to being tempted by one of these, just not pulled the trigger on the cost of it (which I think they are worth).
does look awesome @KayOs