New bike day – just need to build it….

Tried out a coffee / epoxy filler mix today but completely forgot to take photos. Also tried an electrical tape wrap. I’ll unwrap it in thd morning and try to remember to take photos….

Here’s a couple of pics of the coffee/epoxy mix after I unwrapped it this morning.


It sands back nicely so I think I’ll carry on with this method for filling the gaps before any 2nd wrap of hemp.

Nice!

Sean Conway is currently riding a bamboo bike[/url] on the bike leg of his UK coast triathlon and a friend built himself one earlier this year[/url].

Hub arrived today….. and it’s 135 OLD ! TYPICAL. So I’m sending it back – may have to go with so nova techs.

Also I’ve worked out why the stays didn’t fit the non drive side dropouts – some how I did manage to put the wrong stays on the wrong side. If you look at the photo below you can see how the longer seatstay should have extended below the disc mounts. I may strengthen the area by sliding some bar up the seat stay and bonding it in. But i’ll probably just see how it rides first – assuming it’s straight (off to the lbs tomorrow to see if they have any old 700c rear wheels).

On the plus side my coffee filler mix is coming up nicely after a bit of sanding back, it’ll endup looking a bit like a brown camouflage joints at a guess. I’m hoping to get another hemp wrap of the head tube done tonight, and possibly the seat tube junction. Then it’ll just need the fine sanding at the weekend.

Bb joint is almost done and is looking pretty good but i cant take any phot is at the momen as i didn’t get around to doing the 2nd wrap earlier in the week so the frame is screwed to the worktop and covered in electrical tape. The 2nd wrap (hopefully) is this afternoons and tomorrow’s job.

Here a pic of the headtube wrapped up. I did the wrap at about 3pm yesterday, usually epoxy should have a good cure after 12 hrs, checked this am an my test pot is still a little soft and tacky, so i’ll leave it at least another 12hrs until i unwrap it and can do the seat tube junction. The
Epoxy im using should be at around 20°+ when used, and I’m doing it in my garage which isn’t heated + I’m using it quite thick so it needs the extra time.

Its coming together well, and looking good too.

I have (yet) another question, do you know what sort of bamboo they supplied and has it been treated at all? Lots of sites I look at are on about drying and going over the poles with a blowtorch to do something to the natural resins in the bamboo, others talk about using boron salts or similar to drive out bugs, reduce water absorption and prevent mould later on…

Anything like that come up when you bought your kit OP?

Cookeaa – afraid not. There’s no info on the bamboo species or how its been dried out. Personally I’d stay away from buying green bamboo and drying the bamboo your self – from what I’ve read if you use the blowtorch method it fast dries it – stem coming out the end of the poles! And may make the poles brittle and more likely to split or cracks to form at a later date (once the frame is finished).
If your going to go down the specific species etc. Your best off speaking too or visiting these guys https://thebamboocompany.co.uk/ they are the UK bamboo importer and should be able to talk through the properties of each plant and drying process.
I’m only using this frame as a first build – already learnt a load of stuff. I’d like to go down the complete custom (rather than a kit built) frame for the next one.

Just got back bespoked – only one bamboo frame I could find this year.

I’ll leave the frame for a couple of days I think, as it’s way too takey to work on and I want to do one joint at a time.
But I just sprayed so ipa over the bb junction to clean it up. It shown what the finished area should look like after an epoxy glaze…..

Enjoying this thread, I’m waiting until I got the spare funds! I was reading somewhere that the bamboo should be at least 3 year old? Something to do with its strength.

Cheers, Steve

Skankin_giant – the bamboo should be at least 3 year old? Something to do with its strength.

When the bamboo is green it’s filled with water, bamboo structure Is like loads of tiny straws compressed together – you can see the dots of the cross section in the photo earlier in the thread of the end of the tube. The wetter the bamboo the more flexible it is – remember that bit in crouching tiger hidden dragon where they fight in the bendy bamboo forest? But once it’s dried out its pretty solid, but from what I’ve read the quicker you dry it out the more unstable it is.

Yeah there’s a lot seems to have been written about bamboo for bikes and Fishing poles (some of it quite contradictory), from what I can tell, flame isn’t actually intended to dry it out, you can apply heat to help seal it/kill the naturally occurring bugs and mould, and reduce the risk of it splitting or warping later, but application of heat has a fair chance of splitting it straight away…

and drying is really a case of letting it hang somewhere possibly using some type of desiccant to draw moisture out.

Apparently it losses a bit of diameter when drying (around ~5%) which would be a bit catastrophic if it dried and shrank, once assembled into a frame… I have a bit of a plan now, some notional geometry I want to produce and an ever growing BOM that I might start pulling together soon…

Cheers OP this has been an inspirational thread…

Great work. Lookin forwards to seeing the finished bike.

Those joints are starting to look really good.

Ended up wrapping the seat tube junction this afternoon – can’t touch it untill Wednesday night now… then more sanding and fitting the bottle cage bosses and I should be done…..

Bought some 130mm O.L.D carbon clinchers in the end – not my first choice of wheel for this build but worked out a bit cheaper than getting a set built (and less hassle).

I’m thinking about calling it ‘Cafe racer’ after the coffee in the epoxy 🙂 just need to work out a way of writing it on the frame…. (carefully with the dremmel and more coffee/epoxy?).
I’d also like to epoxy in a head badge of some sort.

epoxy a coffee bean into the final wrap for a head badge?

Cheers, Steve

I could do that but I don’t think it’ll stand out on the lug which will already have dark brown blotches- I was thinking of bending up some solder into shat I want, paint it over with some thick epoxy and sand it back to flat (if that makes sense)….

Ah didn’t think of that, could always gold/silver leaf the coffee bean first……

Cheers, Steve

Oooo just found these (pewter?) Coffee buttons which would work – 27mm across so not to large (for a head badge) either.

I was also having a think earlier about how to finish the dropout ends of the bamboo – decided to try some brown Sugru – never really liked the ‘finger print’ finish you get with sugru, but it’ll be nicer than car filler or similar.

SAND PEOPLE!!!!!

The headtube (wrapped on saturday) was dry enough to unwrap tonight looks a little messy again, to be expected. And there’s still some low spots where I don’t want them, but it’s sanded back nicely.
I also put some leftover epoxy/coffee mix in under the electrical tape wrap which seems to have worked.
If I have to do another electrical tape wrap I’d used coloured (green, red, blue) as trying to pick out tiny bits of black tape was a pain.

I used slightly thicker hemp string I ordered a while ago (stupid China post) rather than the thinner 1mm stuff I’ve used on the second wrap around the stays/seat tube. So each jojng will be slightly different from the others.

I’m hoping that I’ve left enough space for one of those buttons between the cable guides / eyes.

Excellent stuff, looks great & thanks for sharing.

A 25.4 seatpost arrived in the post today, surprise surprise it doesn’t fit. Quick check with the Calipers ands it’s closer to 26….. luckily it was a cheap trial seatpost.

So i’ll either get a 26 or a 26.2, but i’ll wait until I finish the sanding so that I can get so good measurements.

Also I have a choice of bars now, some traditional drop bars or some planet x mungo (mustache bar).

Another 20mins work on it… and it’s slowly getting there.



I used a different 1mm hemp string on the seat stays which gave a tighter wrap but… It doesn’t sand as well. I think that as it was tighter it didn’t soak up the epoxy as well so when it’s sanding it’s furring up.

I’ll try to so more work on it and post photos of the seat stays etc over the weekend, but I’ve family down so can’t promise anything.

This is ace. Very tempted to build myself a road frame.

Just be prepared to spend a lot of time sanding!!

I’d be tempted to use woven carbon fibre on the joints. That hemp looks hard work.

Just be prepared to spend a lot of time sanding!!

I built a canoe a few years ago. That is something I’m quite familiar with. 😀

I may use some carbon in the next one……

The button ‘headbadge’ turned up in the post this morning, same size as a 2 pence piece so about spot on.

Also paid the customs charge on the wheels which should turn up on Tuesday.

I’m hoping to get some more of the finer finishING done later today and will update if I can.

Right, a bit more sanding and this is where I am….

I had to cut a few slots in the back of the button and bend it a bit to get it to sit nicely on the headtube and it still needs a little more work

If your wondering whats left to do, there’s the fine sanding and filling. I could just give it a final thin coat of epoxy and build it up at this stage.

Wheels turned up today. Gave me a chance to check the alignment and is out by 2<3mm so no biggy. Somthing the horizontal dropouts can deal with. There us also masses of clearance as the back – may be able to run 38c tyres!

Wheel are also much better than I thought for £250 China carbon jobbies. 1580g….

Looks great! DIdn’t fancy the matching Bamboo rims :O

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/123023756/bamboobee-bamboo-veneer-rims?ref=related-0

Cheers, Steve

Looking good there Sir, this is a great thread and I’m really enjoying watching you go through your labours of love.

What are the forks you are putting on it? They Bamboo too????

Skankin_giant – at £92 each no thanks… They also give no info on how they are made….

bikebouy – What are the forks you are putting on it? They Bamboo too????

Well I have got some carbon disc road forks on order. But now I know I can fit much wider tyres ill swap them out for some cyclocross ones. Is love a set of the new Lauf gravel bike forks but the be way out of my budget for this bike.

Decided to do some of the finer filling with Miliput (epoxy putty). I’ve done half of it and I’ll do the other half later on and will post photos.

Sean Conway is riding round the whole of the UK coastline on a bamboo bike.. He’s currently somewhere on the NW scottlandish coast

Right, while I wait for the milliput to cure, I’ve ordered the majority of parts for the rest of the bike (bank holiday discounts and all that).

So the full build will be……

Frame: Bamboobee ‘XC’ kit
Fork: TBC – ive a carbon road disc fork which should arrive in the next week, but this will change to a cyclo cross one pretty quickly.
Headset: Chris King
Stem: cheap one I got from Plant X in the sale to try for size (110mm)
Bar: either On One Mungo bars which i have already or Salsa Cowchippers (depending on drop required for fit).
Tape: DEDA leather look (brown)
Seat post: cheap one 26mm dia…
Saddle: Brooks Cambium
Brakes: TRP Spires – 140mm rear (i hope it’ll fit, if not i’ll swap for a 160mm) and 160mm front. Cane Creek levers
Gear lever: Dia compe ENE 10sp thumbie
Chainset: Sram Apex set up single ring with a 39t ring.
rear mech: Sram GX 10sp (should work with the thumb shifter as its not indexed).
pedals: Shimano SL road
Tyres: Conti Cyclocross Speed 35c – need to get hold of some 23 or 25c tyres though for the current fork.

oh and 2x fabric cage-less bottles.

Quick update…



Miliput done (the otange bits) and so is the fine sanding on the seat tube junction it should look like this when the final layer of gel coat is applied (just sprayed with ipa fir the photo).
Run out of 240 grit paper so I can’t do any more today.

Update: the wife tells me the forks have been delivered at home – mockup build tonight!!

Also the fabric cage less bottle has arrived so can get the bottle cage bolts in which will be a bit scary as it involes drilling into the down tube and seat tube and the screwing in the recessed bolts…. 😕