Bamboo frame - anyone ridden one yet?

[anonymous-user]

Seeing increasing bits in the press about them, including this in my local rag

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/business/news/9359...

Anyone had a go on one yet?

[snotrag]

I work for a dealer - still waiting for our first test bike, very interested to try. Will report back. Grown in Yorkshire, no less!

[IO]

I didn't realise that bamboo framed bikes were coming back again.
I remember my Grandad telling me that they used it in bikes frames donkey's years ago because it was so strong and light.
I do wonder why it fell out of fashion.

[anonymous-user]

Would be fine on a roadie, I just can't see the heavy duty mtb really not having an detrimental effect on the frame.

sounds like one for the lentil eaters.

ETA - The frames are made by http://www.calfeedesign.com/products/bamboo/ and come with 10 year warranties, so maybe they are good. I am betting thou, 40 man hours to make a frame isn't going to be cheap.

$2.5k for a frame...

Edited by The Spruce goose on Monday 14th November 10:47

[anonymous-user]

Perhaps decades ago bamboo was an alternative to steel but is it better (lighter and stiffer) than modern materials like Carbon fibre or Ti?

Is there an issue with mating the bamboo sections to the joins over time? Presumably you need to bond bamboo to other materials all over the frame?

[anonymous-user]

el stovey said:

Perhaps decades ago bamboo was an alternative to steel but is it better (lighter and stiffer) than modern materials like Carbon fibre or Ti?

Is there an issue with mating the bamboo sections to the joins over time? Presumably you need to bond bamboo to other materials all over the frame?

it says they used carbon fibre, but that failed over time. Now they use hemp.

[mcdjl]

I tried one at the bike show in the NEC a few weeks back. Out of the half dozen bikes i tried (hard tail through to full sussers) it was the one i felt most confident and comfortable on. Possibly related to the fact that it was the last ride and i normally ride a hard tail so didn't get to grips with the others properly.

[PugwasHDJ80]

el stovey said:

Perhaps decades ago bamboo was an alternative to steel but is it better (lighter and stiffer) than modern materials like Carbon fibre or Ti?

Is there an issue with mating the bamboo sections to the joins over time? Presumably you need to bond bamboo to other materials all over the frame?

its still widely used in construction across the far east, and not just for its price- it definitely has some advantages!

[Rouleur]

Owner impressions here http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic....

I really like the look of it but I reckon I'd get sick of telling people what it is!

[snotrag]

The bikes the op and the chap whose test ridden is talking about is NOT the calfee bike in the weight weenies link.

At EBC we will be the exclusive dealers for the bamboo bikes (company name), it's a brand new company and so far I think there's only a few demo bikes about.

I'm a natural cynic regards this sort of thing but what I've read and heard from colleagues sounds promising so far.

It's different, if nothing else.

Grown, and assembled in Yorkshire no less.

PS frame price is considerably cheaper than 2.5k!

Edited by snotrag on Monday 14th November 17:17

[anonymous-user]

snotrag said:

The bikes the op is talking about is NOT the Calder bike.

At EBC we will be the exclusive dealers for the bamboo bikes (company name).

Grown, and assembled in Yorkshire.

PS frame price is considerably cheaper than 2.5k!

It states that Calder take 40 hours to make the frame, so it seems Bamboo needs to be worked on to gain proper structural finish. Calder seem to have a lot of experience in manufacturer and design.

Will they match the 10 years guarantee on Calder and are they a lot of bamboo manufacturing experts in the UK?

[mcdjl]

yes it was one of these bikes: http://www.bamboobike.co/shop/bamboo-mountain-bike...

From memory it looked a lot more elegant than the one on the weight wennies site. Obviously i can't comment on durability but they were making good noises about the testing etc that had been done.

[fixedwheelnut]

A guy who makes them rode one of my events on one, that used a Hemp/epoxy resin mix for bonding sections together.
He said it was very comfortable, his website below and photos I took of it.

http://ridingongrass.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fixedwheelnut/sets/72...

[anonymous-user]

I can't decide whether they look great or not.

[Miguel Alvarez]

How durable would these be over potholes and drains etc?

[missing the VR6]

I was on a skills course a couple of weekends ago run by a chap called Steve who is the chap who builds the frames for Bamboo Bikes, he was waxing lyrical about them and there strength, clearly he has a vested interest in them but from what he was telling us about the things he'd done with them it was quite impressive.

[Mars]

Miguel Alvarez said:

How durable would these be over potholes and drains etc?

I would have thought they would outlive an aluminium frame simply because they "give" a little rather than introducing microfractures each time the aluminium is stressed.

They ought to ride like a CF frame really. The only difference would be that you can control the thicknesses of CF amd its "grain" better than you can natural materials.