This article was taken from the May 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online. "As a building material for frames, bamboo has almost no downsides," says Berlin-based bamboo-bike builder Daniel Vogel-Essex (dvedesign.com). "It has excellent vibration absorption and it's also as flexible as steel, with great energy transfer."
Prepare the bamboo tubing
Choose a diameter of no less than 40mm for the crossbar, downtube and seat tube, and 20mm for the seat stays and chain stays. "Bamboo has a waxy surface, so sand off the top layer -- otherwise it won't bond at the joints," says Vogel-Essex.
Cannibalise an old tube
Get a frame you like, trace its geometry on to a wooden board, and secure it with a jig to hold the parts you want to keep. Saw off the bottom bracket sleeve, headset tube, seat-post tube and dropouts, and use a wire brush to clean the paintwork.
Assembly
Saw your bamboo tubes to the correct length against your geometric frame design, and mount them back on to the board.
Assemble the tubing and create each bamboo and bamboo-to-metal join using epoxy resin - other glues are too brittle.
Finishing
Soak strips of carbon fibre, hemp, linen or Kevlar weave in the resin, and wrap around the joins. You want to get rid of as much excess resin as possible -- try wrapping pin-pricked electrical tape around the joins to squeeze it out. When it's dry, add your parts.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
