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- Heat treating bamboo
- Bamboo Bike #2 – The Daisy
- Why not to buy a titanium bike frame
- Choosing the bamboo for your frame
- bio-resins – alternatives to epoxy resin
- Bamboo Bike Frame Strength Test
- An all carbon bike?
- Foam & carbon
- Bamboo Bicycle Club Live Challenge – another great initiative!
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Category Archives: bamboo
High gloss
Two layers of top coat later and the frame’s all finished! It’s not the smoothest of finishes. There’s a few carbon fibre/cat hairs stuck in there and imperfections of my sanding back are clearly visible. Still, it’s just a prototype … Continue reading
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Finishing touches
Today I’ve put the first of the final touches to the frame – a carved bamboo head-tube Cognitive logo. It’s a bit simplified, but that’s ok as it will probably change down the track anyway. The only things left to … Continue reading
Posted in bamboo, Frame building, wrapping
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Carbon fibre wet layup – stage 2
Unwrapping the first layer this morning and it’s all gone well. The cling wrap’s left lots of wrinkles in the resin, which isn’t ideal, but for these base layers it’s ok as it’ll all get sanded back. Hopefully by the … Continue reading
Posted in bamboo, carbon fibre, Frame building, wrapping
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Mitre’s well show you
Here’s the results of today’s mitreing. Pretty happy with the results so far. Just have the top tube to go and then into the more finicky work of the rear triangle. The main thing I learned today is that getting both sides … Continue reading
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Choosing the bamboo for your frame
This might seem obvious, but choosing the exact bits of bamboo you’ll use for your bike frame is one of the most important things to do in the frame building process. You need to know a lot of stuff before … Continue reading
Posted in bamboo, Frame building
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Mitre 10
Ever wonder where Mitre 10 got its name from? Neither have I. But mitres are what I’m working on this week. I’ve printed off my mitre templates from the ever awesome BikeCad and wrapped them around the poles I intend … Continue reading
Posted in bamboo, Frame building
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Heat treating bamboo
Over the course of the last few months I’ve heard a lot about the process for heat treating bamboo. People put it in ovens, attack it with butane torches, smoke it over fires or dry it out in kilns. Why … Continue reading
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Bamboo Bicycle Stand
So the end product of my test composite joint making is a bamboo bike stand! Here she is: I’ve designed it to exactly fit a 700C road wheel, but it could easily be made with wider slots for wider wheels. … Continue reading
A visit to Bamboo Australia
I’ve flown up to Queensland this week to see Bamboo Australia and their amazing supply of bamboo. Arrived there today and spent a good 3 hours breaking the ears off the lovely staff and asking possibly too many questions. Here’s … Continue reading
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Selecting the culms
I’ve selected the 7 culms (fancy word for a bamboo pole) for the first frame. Here’s a pic of them laid out into the respective parts of the frame: And here’s a view of the thickness of the downtube: I … Continue reading
Curing bamboo
Bamboo is susceptible to mould and bugs if left untreated so I’m planning on following this procedure for curing the bamboo, which basically involves soaking it in borax and boric acid solution for 2 weeks. After this I’ll dry the … Continue reading