Comments on: Bamboo Composite frame at NAHMBS

By: NAHBS, a Torker cargo bike, and more | Bicycle Design

NAHBS, a Torker cargo bike, and more | Bicycle Design — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:15:05 +0000

[...] mentioned a few interesting bikes at the last couple of North American Handmade Bicycle Shows. This year’s show, which opened [...]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:51:04 +0000

A composite medium like bamboo gives you the ability to have a design specific fibre size or mix of sizes, with optimised fibre orientation and weaving for enhanced directional stresses and loads!
....also, the fibre/resin ratio is infinitely tweakable to achieve the desired stiffness for each part of an engineered product!
Is brilliant!
Is he hydroforming this stuff?
even wet-lay bamboo weave composite has many benefits over standard fibreglass though with its champions claiming twice the "strength" for half the weight of fibreglass.
i
Im thinking of making a marine structural foam vacuum infusion boatskin.
The possibilities are endless it seems.
Ive seen stuff from surfboards to lotus bodyshells made of bamboo reinforced plastic or BaRP as i like to call it!
16 december 2009 copyright property of (c)eightyape

By: bikesgonewild

bikesgonewild — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:09:00 +0000

…brano…just realized you had replied, so thank you…i have you bookmarked & will continue to check your site…

…the bamboo composite, despite the problems you’re encountering, is really interesting & the idea that you are exploring bio-degradables certainly adds to the appeal…

…while i’m not a fan of the look or style of the truss frame bike, i love the ‘idea’ that you’re exploring different concepts…

…also, your sense of humor is great…the ’60′s soviet bluetooth phone is awesomely funny…

…anyway, keep up the great work…

By: Brano

Brano — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:11:00 +0000

bikesgonewild, for building the frame I used the fabric, which was woven for me from pure bamboo fibers according my requirements (not really exactly what I wanted) in China. I built the frame using the same method that is described on my website how I built my first carbon frame. So there are several layers of bamboo fabric embedded in the epoxy resin, variously oriented. I will add some info at my website later.

BTW, I would like to do some more research in this field, use various other materials, biodegradable resins, so you will see...

By: James

James — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:35:00 +0000

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Ron, I saw those posts and skimmed through them. Good stuff. Like bikegonewild, I haven't had the time to read them all yet.

By: bikesgonewild

bikesgonewild — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:56:00 +0000

…ron…haven’t had time to finish all three articles, but fascinating stuff…thanks…

By: Stephan

Stephan — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 07:05:00 +0000

We've got a few more show pic's at Flickr to toss into the pool.

I'm just sorry I didn't have my camera for all of the evening activities. Too hard to hold my beer and shoot pic's at the same time.

By: Ron

Ron — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:02:00 +0000

James,

I’ve got a 3 part series on bamboo bikes if you’re interested. Check out the blog…

By: Fritz

Fritz — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:20:00 +0000

Wild and James, Brano showed me the naked sheets -- they looked like woven mats of fibers embedded in the plastic. Brano said he's still working with it. James, I assume you've emailed Brano to ask about this?

Brano also plans to start selling his bamboo/carbon MTB frames beginning later this year. The frames will be very similar to the prototype shown on his website that he built several years ago.

Wild, regarding the isotruss bike -- TYler said they rode it through mud fully expecting the frame to get packed up, and was surprised when it wasn't a problem. I didn't have any reason not to believe him.

Most of the photos I've seen of that Roark kids bike don't show the scale -- it's built for a *small* child. The wheels are cut from a 2" thick slab of aluminum. It's some amazing work.

By: James

James — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:32:00 +0000

jimmythefly, good idea for a post topic. I don’t have much time this week though. Are you interested in writing a short guest post on the subject?

bikesgonewild, great question about the bamboo composite. Maybe Brano can elaborate on the construction for us.