New bike day – just need to build it….

Quick mock up…. now to drop or not to drop….

Not managed to do an update for awhile as im waiting on the parts to arrive so I can do a full build ‘dry run’ prior to the final finishing coat. I’ll try to get the bottle cage mounts and cable guides in later on today.

Right – update….

When I bought the frame kit I bought some ‘bottle cage inserts’ which are a little Ikea in fashion if you know what I mean:

Essentially you drill a couple of 6mm holes (spaced correctly)……

and screw them in with a bit of epoxy to fix.

The downside is that it lifts and splits the top
Layers of the bamboo around the insert.

If I were to use them again, I think I’d wrap the areas around the 6mm holes in a few lengths of hemp prior to screwing them in.
Getting them in has ment I’ve sorted the cable routing properly – I’m using some double cable guides from crc in conjunction with Fabric cage less bottle mounts. I like to carry a single bottle but have the option to run 2 on hot days So I had to make sure that the bottle mounts would fit with the cable guides. This ment swapping the bolts for some longer ones and grinding down the heads so they’d fit in the bottle mounts.

Any way…. starting to do the dry build as the parts start to arrive.

I’m not happy with the fork – it doesnt sit right with the chris king headset, obviously made for tapered headtubes so i’ll probably swap that at some point. It’s also very very close to the 160mm disc (like 1mm close).
Fitted a sunrace 11-42 10speed cassette – I’ll be running a single 39 or 40t chainring (depending if I go narrow wide) which will give 0.9 gear inches in the bottom end – same as running a 36t caste with a 34t chainring. ~ it’s hilly in the cotswolds!!
I’ve also ordered new bars and stem – some Love Mud bombers and 31.8 stem.
All the remaining bits ‘should’ arrive by next weekend so I’ll be able to do a full build to check for clearances prior to stripping down again, making any adjustments, final 250 grit sand and a coat of gel coat.

All colours of crazy that.

I like 8)

Oh yeah – forgot to give it some IPA shine before the photos….

To be totally fair, whilst I admired the effort I thought it looked quite horrendous. But, once mocked up in to a full build styley, it has grown on me massively.

Touche good sir.

Yeah – bamboo bikes always look terrible until they are built.

Will you leave it that colour or paint it?

It’s going to be left with a clear layer of epoxy gel coat on the joints at least, although i’ve not sourced this yet. Haven’t decided if i’ll wax or varnish the bamboo.
The joints look quite light in the photos above as they are dusty – it’ll darken up with the gel coat layer.
I could paint the joints but I don’t see the point in that – I’d rather keep its ‘home made charm’.

I’m still waiting on my box of bits to appear – I did have a sram apex chainset on order (was due into the shop yesterday), but I’ve just swapped this over to a deore so that I can get the thing built. I’ve also ordered a 40t ring to go on it.

After the first few bits have gone on I’ve noticed that the drive side seat stay joint is blocking the chain line so i’ll have to sort that out this weekend.

I’m hoping that the rest of the bits I need will get dispatched today and delivered tomorrow…..

That looks so much better than I expected at the start of this thread, even in its part-built guise. Which Chinese seller did you go with for the wheels?

The wheels were these:

link to ebay.

It’ll be a complete Frankenbike when it’s built with a complete mix of mtb / road / touring & cyclocross parts.

Great, thanks.

Enough of my bit turned up today to start building it up.

First problem is that the diacomp thumb shifter didn’t come with the shims for my bar… Started to make one out of some tube but it wasn’t thin enough so i’ll have to sort out something else.

2nd problem the chainset came without the bb…. guess that’s another £10 ill have to spend.

3rd problem the forks are just too tight for
The 35c tyres I want to run. I’m guessin they’d be fine with 28’s so I either need to compromise on the tyre size or swap the fork out. But as I didn’t like how its sits either the headset anyway – the fork has to go! I may get some cheap 23c tyres just so I can get it rolling in the mean time.

4th issue was that tyre clearances at the rear are also tighter than I’d like. With the wheel slotted all the way in the horizontal dropouts the tyre has about 1 or 2mm either side – enough for the little rubber manufacturing spigots to buzz on the frame – I’ll need to possibly run bmx tensioners to get the wheel to sit securely.

5th issue, with the 140mm disc on the rear I need to remove the rear caliper to get the wheel out – not great if/when I puncture. This ill need to some thought into as I don’t think I could run a 160mm disc – but we’ll see….

Wow looks great

That looks amazing. Great work sir!

I must admit, I winced a bit when I saw those threaded inserts. Hideous course threads on them combined with the hardness of bamboo 😯
Glad you got away with them. You can get versions of them with much finer threads which can just be epoxied in.

Fantastic build. Really interesting stuff.
🙂

Ohhh the rear tyre clearance is a bugger.

Jekkyl – it’s not so bad when slotted back in the dropouts a little…

New cyclocross fork on order – it’s a bit of a bugger finding an affordable 1&1/8 straight steerer disc cyclocross fork. China to the rescue so if the frame doesn’t kill me, the fork will!

Looking pretty fabulous, glad to hear about all your problems and issues faced so far. I’ve really enjoyed reading and looking at the pics,

Still bonkers, but now looking more like a bike.

It’s a bit of a way of yet, but when do you expect the first ride on it ?

I’m hoping to get some sort of shakedown test over the weekend – just waiting on the bottom braket to turn up.
After that it’ll all come apart again for final finishing and varnish – already had to do some sand in to get the disc to fit (also around 1mm clearances). I’ll need to either go up to 160mm (if i can) or change the disc mount possition completely to get around the wheel removal issue.

Started to build it up last night so expect a full update at some point in the weekend.

The rear break will definatly have to change to a 160mm rotor if I can get it to fit in the frame – the caliper fouls the seatstay IS brake mount AT the moment.

I’d also bought a lindrets tan pan : link to reduce the throw of the dia comp shifter, but this doesn’t work with my cable routing so i’m undesided if ill use it. It also gives less acurate shifting with the unindexed thumb shifter…

I need to sort out the chain alignment with the deore chainset as its about 4 or 5mm over to the right at the moment – kinda for got about this when i swapped the road chainset for it – i’ll make sone spacers up from old chainrings…

Ta Daa

So, how does it ride?

So, how does it ride?

Irrelevant. How quickly do runner beans grow up it, that’s what I want to know!

It’s very comfortable & smooth – however I can’t ‘put the power down’ as the tyre buzzes the chainstays at the mo… This will be sorted by some tensioners (I only did a couple of 100 yrds).

No sign of runner beans yet 😀

Other issues include not quite getting into 10th gear as it’s fouling the seat stay joint. Other than that it’s spot on.

With all those issues you should take it back and get a warranty replacement.

Nah – there all simple fixes 🙂

Sorry. I have to say this has been one of my favourite STW threads. The bike looks great. Well done you.

😀 glad to hear it….
Although reading back through some of my posts I really should start using the laptop more – predictive text and adding photos etc causes too many mistakes.

Still not finished & already planning mkII.

That is kinda cool.

I want to ask if the ride is a bit wooden? But will get flamed,

Most Eco bike on STW ever.

Excellent!

You’ve done a great job, clearly there will be tweaks a plenty but now we’d all like to know a) how it rides and b) where/what terrain you’ll ride it on.

8)

Looks cool AF.

I’m just doing n-3 as well, so would like to build one of these!

Dunno about Eco….

Frame kit came from China and there’s a lot of Epoxy involved.

The brief ride I had this afternoon was good – it rides like any other bike but the stays (and big rear tyre) take up a fair bit of road buzz.

It’s still only part way to finished – on the list to do now are:

• mark out and fit a front mech direct mount (fir a chain device, or front mech if I want to fit one in the future)
• sorting out the chain clearances.
• sort out the chain alignment
• cable routing for the rear break along the chainstay, could use the sugru?
• chainstay protection – either sugru or leather?
• then a full 100% strip down.
• finishing the 250 grit sanding and finishing (my dremel gave up the ghost last week so I didn’t get to do this)
• complete clean of the frame followed by some sort of clear gel coat to the joints.
• mount the head badge
• final finish to apply to the bamboo – I’m thinking wax at the moment.
• the a rebuild with the new fork.

a) how it rides and b) where/what terrain you’ll ride it on.

As for a) see above…
b) a bit of everything, road, some local gravel, Cranham woods maybe? I’m sure I’ll also take it to Swinley next time I’m in the area.

Nice job!

Nothing better than that first ride on a raw unfinished home made frame. I always seem to end up using the same route of little roads and tracks (i.e. not too far from home….) I’ll hopefully be trying a gash build of my (boring old steel) CX frame this week.

It is always the little things you learn with each frame – cable guides, fork, disc, crank and tyre clearances. All of which means you’ll soon end up making another one. And another…. 🙂

Just mounted the chain device.


I’m hoping it’ll stay stuck!
Also took off the chain tensioner on the wife’s bike (she won’t notice). But had to mod it into a spacer to stop the wheel sliding all the way forward into the dropouts.


I’ve only one so i’ll have to see how it holds.

Right it’s all dry, spacer is in and I just did a couple of miles around the block with a bit through a field thrown in….

It rides great. I had to stop a couple of times to get the rear wheel sitting true as ive only spacer in one side so when you put any serious power down It drags the wheel into the stay. Too be honest ill probably just run 28c’s for now (I’ve a couple on order).

As for the ride – great. I’ve only experience of carbon road bikes which I’ve always found very harsh. The bamboo really does soak up the bumps – I’ll have to see how much a difference running a 28c tyre makes.

I may end up putting a 90mm stem on there as well – it’s a little stretched when on the drops. Especially when on the rough stuff (could be the mtb’r in me talking). But for a first ride it was great.

With regards to the slipping dropout I’d thoroughly recommend getting a shimano qr in there and really cranking it down tight. I’ve run singlespeeds with one chain tug and a shimano qr and it works fine.

Right, just been able to do a little more:

Fitted the Sugru to the chainstay.

And ended up going with a wax finnish rather than gel coat or similar. I’ve ended up using wax as it’ll be easier to make any adjustments to the frame at a later date. It’ll mean a constant replication to protect the frame, and the UK block won’t be very good (epoxy degrades in sunlight) but this is a first / trial build so I’m not that fussed.

Also got the ‘head badge’ fitted.

Oh and my new phone made a video 😀