I am now reporting on the best experience I've had in recent memory. This past weekend I participated in a bamboo bike frame building workshop at the Bamboo Bike Studio in Red Hook Brooklyn. I am into cycling (and making things of course) and had been researching traditional frame building courses but those tend to be about two weeks long, and are expensive and are in Portland OR. This local workshop really seemed appealing to get the experience of building a frame myself in one weekend and then ride off on a super cool single-speed bike. Plus, the entire exercise is centered around the goals of creating self sustaining, entrepreneurial bike factories in Ghana and Kenya. So, I get to learn about frame building, end up with a lightweight, high-tech bike and contribute to something bigger than myself (they do a much better job of explaining this than i do-check out their site).
I showed up around 9:30 on Saturday morning and met my other workshop mates, Li and Jules from the UK, who actually worked their vacation around this workshop. Then for the rest of Saturday and Sunday, three young, idealistic, energized, dedicated, intelligent, super smart guys (plus a few other folks) showed us how to assemble seven pieces of treated bamboo into a lightweight, super-strong bicycle frame (members of this group include a Columbia engineer and several bike mechanics among other experts). There are several steps, of course, and it gets a bit complicated, but the gist is the joints are tacked together then wrapped in resin-coated carbon fiber. All told, it took about 12 hours on Saturday to finish the wrapping and wrapping and wrapping, so it could dry overnight for the next day.
The first day was exhausting, but incredibly educational. I wasn't expecting the science, engineering and exhaustive testing that this team had put into the project. We were about the 5th or so public group (family and friends had been helping for a while), so it was still trial and error a bit. But after hearing about how well thought out and engineered these frames were I had no misgivings about the performance and safety of the bike.
We showed up about the same time on Sunday and the team were already there doing some sanding and finishing for us. The first half of the day we sanded down any bumpy parts on the carbon (careful to not remove too much material and compromise the joints), remove all the masking tape and resin spillage, generally clean it up. This was followed by a light coating of resin over the entire bike. Bamboo absorbs silicate from the ground so it is naturally water repellent, but this extra resin coating helps to keep the bike protected (and shiny).
After lunch on Sunday, the frames were still a bit tacky, but ready to build up. This part also was entirely interactive and educational. These guys clearly wanted us to be self sufficient, which is, of course, the overall end goal. We learned about installing forks and bottom brackets, adjusting brakes and chains, so on. It was amazing. But the real thrill was seeing the frame become a bicycle. My bicycle that is - that I built - and i had the resin soaked arm hair to prove it!
They finished my bike first and every one piled outside, in the sharp 5 o'clock Red Hook sunlight, and I mounted my bamboo stead and gave it a go. Now, I ride a pretty high-end Look carbon fiber road bike. That bike has nothing on this one. The bamboo bike was super supple, stiff (remember all that wrapping, and wrapping, and wrapping?), yet very smooth. The bamboo frame absorbed any road imperfections and still fell connected to the road and oh so fast and tight. Lastly, this bike is light, a good carbon fiber road bike weighs about 16lbs, a good steel bike about 20lbs, this one is about 18lbs (carbon fiber is light and strong)! I can get it lighter with a carbon fork and better wheels, but for now, it's perfect. I am getting a different saddle, but otherwise, I proudly ride my hand make bike almost every day.