Bamboo Bike A Reality 467
markjugg writes "The American Bamboo Society has a page describing a working bamboo bike. This is a strong step towards making bicycling more sustainable, expecially in contrast to aluminum, one of the most resource demanding materials that exist."
strength of bamboo (Score:5, Interesting)
But Flavio makes me see things differently: Bamboo is a resource of immense potential. And it is strong too. What makes it possible to build bicycles from it is that it is stronger than steel when strained in the longitudinal direction, 17% to be exact.
The main point of the article, of course, is that bamboo is much more environmentally friendly than metals while being extraordinarily plentiful.
Next Week... (Score:5, Funny)
Next week we can all read about the follow up stories from the America Plastic Association, the American Balsa Wood Collective, and the Society for the Reuse of Aluminum Foil...
Davak
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:5, Funny)
"But Flavio makes me see things differently: Bamboo is a resource of immense potential. And it is strong too. What makes it possible to build bicycles from it is that it is stronger than steel when strained in the longitudinal direction, 17% to be exact."
While resistence to longitudinal stress is a good thing, many of the strains on the frame of a bike are not longitudinal - there is a lot of lateral flexing as you pedal. Bamboo is prone to splitting and fracturing when under lateral strain. I would really hate to have one of those collapse under me due to lateral stress fractures. All those sharp slivers of bamboo right under my crotch? No thanks...
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:5, Interesting)
Add to that the possibility of very simple reinforcement by wrapping it at key points with a strong thread and/or laminating it with reinforcements and I doubt it would break under normal usage.
Even if it did, you would see signs of wear before it happened. What causes catastrophic failure of bamboo is usually force being applied on bamboo that has been cut into the grain and/or had holes cut into it.
Of course, that doesn't stop it from being fugly
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:3, Funny)
Add to that the possibility of very simple reinforcement by wrapping it at key points with a strong thread and/or laminating it with reinforcements...
Once again, duct tape saves my ass (and other stuff).
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:4, Insightful)
So the metal lugs take care of the complicated stresses at these points and only transmit compression/tension stresses to the bamboo tubes, and minimize torsion stresses along a given tube (probably by using "oversize" bamboo tubes also).
Another advantage to this is, if you crack a top tube in a crash, I would think it is relatively cheap to get a new tube put back in, instead of having to throw away the entire bike (i.e., Trek 5000-series) frame.
I know I would probably NOT trust a bamboo handlebar (besides, how would they ever grow a bamboo drop handlebar?), but other than that...
Yes, I realize that this article is about bikes for third-world countries, but if some sort of mandate from UCI came about to use more sustainable materials (if they can do it with bike frame shapes, they could do it with construction techniques and materials as well...) in exchange from deviation from standard "double-diamond" designs, then this affects a rabid, money-spending group of bike consumers...
While I appreciate some of the tech in the bikes that pro bike racers use, I know that for 99% of bike racers, it does not make the difference between winning or losing a bike race, finishing that century, or grabbing a latte across town.
It is a bit like buying a ferarri to buy groceries and run errands.
Those who have the $$$ (or think or want to project that they do) will always spend it. The rest of us who don't have to look for value.
It would be cool to buy a Colnago C-40 "ferarri" bike. But it's definitely not worth $7,000. Besides, the people who win bike races simply have better motors than those who don't. Their equipment doesn't matter much, if at all, compared to their peers. If everyone only had Schwinn Varsity's, the people who win bike races now would still be winning the races...
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:3, Insightful)
Slivers & Rattan (Score:5, Interesting)
One of the primary reasons (even beyond weight and durability) why the SCA [sca.org] uses rattan instead of bamboo for weapon shafts in its mock "heavy" combat is that it does not splinter but instead kind of "pulps" when it breaks. The concern on the battle field is that splinters could easily be driven through helm eyeslots. There's enough risk in taking a blow or falling in armor during normal fighting that extreme hazzards like that are hardly welcome.
After all, we can't have anyone getting hurt during a war, can we?
flaming hoops (Score:5, Funny)
Personally, I would love to see more natural fibers in bikes. Rather than making the whole bike from bamboo, making just a few pieces helps reduce the consumption from the titanium mines.
Sig: Flamable materials are dangerous, which is why I always make sure the products I buy are clearly marked as "inflamable."
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:3, Insightful)
Before you say that bamboo is weak and easily dismembered [snip] What makes it possible to build bicycles from it is that it is stronger than steel when strained in the longitudinal direction, 17% to be exact.
Yes, but steel/aluminum won't rot, won't get eaten by bugs, are stronger in NON-logitudinal directions(ie, twisting- think about when you pump the pedals holding the handlebars, yes, you're twisting pieces of the frame!)...and when they fail, they (usually) just bend. Bamboo cracks, and then it ju
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:5, Funny)
Hmmm yes, what we really need is an environmentally friendly biodegradable substance that won't rot or get eaten by bugs. Best of both worlds.
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:3, Funny)
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:5, Insightful)
I disagree with this non-environmental friendly stuff regarding Aluminum and Steel. These two metals are some of most recycled materials that there are. What do you think happens to old ships, cars, buildings? They are not buried, but smelted again.
In fact this is the beauty of these metals. They can be essentially recycled 100% unlike plastics and papers that always need additives. The reason we do not know about this is because steel and aluminum have been recycled for decades...
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:3, Insightful)
Recycling aluminum & steel reduces the problem, but even that requires large amounts of energy (see above
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:3, Informative)
Why do I know about this metal recycling? Because my father used to own a metal stamping company. And it made sense to recycle because you would be given money. Most people do not know that you get MONEY back...
So sorry, take a look at industry and how it recycles...
Recycling problems (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:3, Funny)
or pandas....
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:3, Interesting)
Actaually, rotting is not as great a problem. Plain wood can last a long time - look at the many hundred+ year old buildings around. Also, redwood is naturally resistant to rot.
Finally, if you make the bike somewhat modular, it would be possible to periodically replace sections which show any signs of damage or rot.
My main question, which the article really didn't address (or I
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:5, Informative)
The matter system on this planet is closed loop.
While this is not entirely true, some 40,000 tons of space borne dust land on our planet and we may someday mine extra-planetary bodies, for arguments sake all the aluminum we're going to use is here now. If we continue to use it all the bauxite will be gone some day, and from then on, all aluminum will be recycled.
However, long before that day all aluminum will be recycled because it costs 20X as much to make aluminum from Bauxite as it does to remelt it from scrap. The aluminum industry uses all the scrap aluminum it can get because the final product is just as valuable as aluminum from ore, but the profit is very different.
So aluminium the matter is a renewable resource, just like the carbon in bamboo, except to reuse aluminum it need merely be remelted via heat (typically electrical power, though a solar furnace could be used), and the carbon in bamboo must be oxidized and reduced (typically by rotting or burning and then photosynthesis).
Most domestic aluminum production happens in the pacific northwest where the power is provided by dams, a renewable resource, but certainly much of it is provided by oxidizing hydrocarbons to produce CO2 and H2O, both end state products that require substantial energy to reduce to reduce back to something chemically useful. This return cycle of oxidized hydrocarbon energy production is managed by the biomass of the world, and is driven by solar power via photosynthesis at 0.2% net efficiency, just as bamboo production is.
The energy system on this planet is constant rate
All energy on this planet comes from the sun. The sun has provided a net energy surplus for a few million years, most of it stored in reduced hydrocarbons (about half in oil and half in methane hydrates, and a comparatively inconsequential amount in leftover fissile heavy atoms). The world's total carbon reserves (1.6E13 bbls oil equivalent) contain enough energy to provide current consumption (globally 1.2E14 Kwh/year) rates for 221 years. If the rest of the world catches up with US consumption rates all the reduced carbon in the world will only last 38 years.
So, sooner or later (within 200 years, longer if there's a big global war or other population reducing event, much shorter if growth continues) all our energy will come from solar power directly as we will have consumed the planets "life savings" of net reduced carbon.
Photosynthesis is 0.2% efficient. Photovoltaics are currently about 10% efficient (20X more) in commercial applications (7.5% efficient over the life of the device) and efficiencies of over 30% are achievable.
To meet next year's global energy demands (1.2E14 Kwh, not including firewood) would take only 6.5E7 M2 of commercially available solar panels for $1.3E10 at current retail. The world will spend $4.4E11 on oil alone next year. If we spent 5% extra on oil (global tax) we could fully fund global solar power within a year. Interestingly, to meet the US's entire current energy demands with solar electric, we would need to cover about half of our roads, at no net change in albumen.
Within 200 years, and probably within 50, all the energy used in the production of aluminum will be direct solar.
Bamboo vs. Aluminum just isn't that obvious
Bamboo is a very impressive material, basically a single orientation composite, which can be easily reinforced against torsion and it's comparatively low modulus can be compensated for with larger diameter tubes in a bicycle, but it is not obvious that it's a more efficient use of land to grow bamboo than to use solar power to recycle aluminum into new bicycles.
But we have a long way to go on energy use and recycling, and so bamboo is an o
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:2, Funny)
And next time I'm hit by an suv while riding a bike, I'll be sure glad the bike shattered into bits instead of staying in one relative piece!
Did the people who did this previous work in MS's "innovation" department???
extraordinarily plentiful (Score:2, Funny)
This sounds great to me, but man I hope that bamboo doesn't work its way into my garden. Has anybody here ever tried to weed bamboo out of a garden?
My mom planted bamboo once, and then, a few years later in the course of reorganizing her garden, asked me to dig it out. Ugh! That stuff is worse than an Outlook virus! It sends out needle sharpd shooters in all directions. If you see a single stalk poking ou
Re:strength of bamboo (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
it's been done... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:it's been done... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:it's been done... (Score:5, Funny)
Go figure, the Professor could make Bamboo Bikes, Timeshares, Coconut powered-radios, a nuclear reactor and yet they couldn't simply patch a fucking hole in the goddamn boat, The Minnow...wtf?!
Re:it's been done... (Score:3, Funny)
"Whatcha building there Professor?"
"Err, something that'll get us off the island and you're going to be the first to leave."
"Gee, that sounds great Professor! When am I leaving?"
"Now."
*bang*
Ummmm..... (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, I know that some bikes have the brake mechanism in the hub of the rear wheel, but that doesn't appear in the photo either.
Re:Ummmm..... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Ummmm..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent: yeah, right. Imagine this - you're going at full speed. Downhill. You'd better keep your feet as far away from the pedals as possible - if you don't want to break your legs.
Re:Ummmm..... (Score:3, Interesting)
This bike might have a internal coaster brake, like kids' bikes, or may very well be a fixed gear bike. These things do exist and are perfectly suitable to most urban environments (with the possible exeption of cities like San Francisco). Going downhill you DON'T take your feet off the pedals, you just control your descent by s
Re:Ummmm..... (Score:2)
My first two bikes both had this style of single gear chain based breaking. It's actually fairly common, especially in little kiddie bmx bikes and the like.
Fixed Gear Bikes (Score:3, Informative)
My fixed gear bike is running a ratio of 46t/16t chainrings (over a 2:1 ratio). The one in the photo looks more like a 24t/18t (close to a 1:1 ratio). Bottom line is you won't be picking up too much speed on this thing, but it should make the hills easy
Re:Ummmm..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ummmm..... (Score:3, Informative)
Nope. It is true that many die hard MTB'ers ride Single Speeds, but there's always a freewheel/coasting capability. Imagine trying to clear a tehnical rock section without being able to keep your pedal arms horizontal.
Re:Ummmm..... (Score:2)
Fixie! (Score:5, Informative)
This may seem like a pain, but fixies are actually extremely popular among a certain bike subculture, particularly urban bike messengers. The famous and wonderful Sheldon Brown [sheldonbrown.com] has an extensive collection of articles [sheldonbrown.com] on building and riding fixies.
Re:Fixie! (Score:2)
Re:Fixie! (Score:2)
Bear alert! (Score:3, Funny)
Pandas aren't bears. (Score:3, Informative)
Seems like a hoax... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Seems like a hoax... (Score:2)
Gilligan and the Professor Rejoice (Score:2, Informative)
More Sustainable than Aluminum ?? (Score:5, Informative)
Aluminum makes up 8 percent of the crust of this damn planet. http://www.csulb.edu/~rodrigue/geog140/lectures/c
Re:More Sustainable than Aluminum ?? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:More Sustainable than Aluminum ?? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you look closely at the design of an aluminum bike, you can tell not many resources are used as they use the least for weight purposes. I know the frame on my Cannondale is a couple of millimeters thick. The rigidness comes from thin walls on a fat tube.
Aluminum bikes aren't going to be around for much longer anyway, the price range for a good aluminum bike gets you right up there with titanium and magnesium alloy frames, which are superior in my opinion. Most of the trim parts consist of carbon fiber (wheels and forks on the better bikes use this).
I am not sure what the point in this article is. There are far greater wastes of resources in new car design as well as the actual bottling process of cans. If the media, or anyone else cared enough to be earth friendly, we'd do it in ways that were actually beneficial. Not by purchasing organic bikes.
A note on steel bikes. They aren't taking into consideration the actual alloys used when doing the comparison. No bikes are made with 100% steel. They use various alloies in the process.
I'm picky on this subject after commuting soley by bike for a few years. I would not trust my riding on busy city streets to an organic material, I'd much prefer the comfort of knowing the materials are consistent due to the manufacture process involved with metals. I highly doubt the bamboo is nearly as consistent if measured across the bike's whole frame.
Re:More Sustainable than Aluminum ?? (Score:3, Insightful)
On a tangent, in Thailand you can buy snacks of steamed rice with various goodies, cooked inside a section of bamboo. Buy them outside Hualampung Station before going on long train trips.
Re:That's even more sustainable. (Score:3, Funny)
Please use emticons in your future postings so we know whether to laugh with you or at you.
Thanks,
The Slashdot-reading public.
Re:More Sustainable than Aluminum ?? (Score:5, Informative)
In this case it's not so much the energy costs or the pollution as the fact that poor countries just don't have the energy to go around.
Re:More Sustainable than Aluminum ?? (Score:2)
It's a very energy-demanding process to produce Al.
Re:More Sustainable than Aluminum ?? (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not the electricity or energy so much- aluminum is extracted via electrolysis- but the enormous amount of electricity for this is often taken from hydroelectric plants which doesn't generate much CO2 (except during construction of the dam).
However,
Re:More Sustainable than Aluminum ?? (Score:2)
Aluminuminuminuminum (Score:5, Insightful)
That's funny. Aluminum is indeed expensive to extract and process and that's why it's also the most recycled mineral(?) in existence.
Attacked By Endangered Species (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Attacked By Endangered Species (Score:3, Funny)
(Now, some extra crap to fill space and defeat lame lameness filter) blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
"Sustainable"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Bicycling more "sustainable"? Haven't the environmentalists been trying to get us all to change to bicycles from cars supposedly because of the pollution that cars generate? And now not even bicycles are "sustainable" because they are "resource intensive"?
When does it end? Should I just stop using resources altogether (i.e. die?)
I won't post this anonymously precisely because I mean this quite seriously and not as a troll. Mod me down if you must.
Justin
Re:"Sustainable"? (Score:2, Insightful)
Actually I've been convinced for years that this is exactly what radical environmentalists would like. They'd like to see 90% of the earth's population dead and the remaining 10% should behave and think exactly as they do. This means living a completely agrarian lifestyle and automatically believing that all advancing technology is bad and/or evil. How these ninnies ever expect to live beyond the death of our own sun is beyond me. But then again
Re:"Sustainable"? (Score:2)
Re:"Sustainable"? (Score:3)
Re:"Sustainable"? (Score:4, Insightful)
they probably think that the death of all humanity is ultimately a good thing...the word you're searching for is 'misanthropic' and yes some of the kookoo activists are deeply misanthropic, eg. Paul Watson [seashepherd.org]. Misanthropes are as bad as Social Darwinists.
No being can stop using resources. It's simply a question of ecology. How much do you give back to the life-sustaining biosphere, it's vigor and diversity? Only robo-heads assume that technology must by definition consume increasingly vast amounts of resources. It's our sloppiness, technological youth, and immature economics (eg. GDP benefits from ecological disaster) that keeps us overusing and laying waste. (Sidestepping population debates here.)
Most environmentalists are all about appropriate technology, and want nothing more than society to act upon some of the basic principles of progress, such as "waste is a costly inefficiency" and "knowledge must complexify". That way we'll begin to understand chaotic systems like ecologies and develop cheaper, higher tech stuff that pollutes WAY less or not at all.
I think a bamboo bike in mass production would have to be pretty high-tech to succeed. And, like many environmentalists, I look forward to cleverly designed industry, cities, and social conditions--appropriate (sustainable) technology. It's conservative, applies the precautionary principle, but it's not technophobic, its really an argument about what technology and how to deploy it.
Re:"Sustainable"? (Score:3, Insightful)
What you seem to miss is that environmentalists' goals aren't just some arbitrary crap that someone made up to punish you. The idea is to do the least damage to the environment. If you can do less damage by biking, great. If you can do even less than that by using fewer resources in the process, wonderful. Even if "the environmentalists" you refer to are
An explaination for non-bike-geeks (Score:5, Informative)
The bike is a single-speed. That means it does not need gears, breaks or even a ratcheted freewheel (on the back wheel)... the pedals are connected directly to the rear wheel by the chain. If you want to slow down you use your legs.
Single-speeds are favourites of city-couriers, where there is a great advantage to have a light-simple bike. There is less to break (XTR gear systems are known to wear out after a few weeks of couriering).
As for Aluminum - dont get me started on that nasty harsh material. There has been a disturbing trend for wannabee bikers to adopt the freakiest lightest materials at the expense of all other properties.
For me, steel still has the edge over all these fancy materials. A steel frame will last for years of hard riding, and still feel as plush as the day it was first ridden.
Re:An explaination for non-bike-geeks (Score:2, Informative)
Re:An explaination for non-bike-geeks (Score:4, Informative)
Re:An explaination for non-bike-geeks (Score:2)
As a fellow bike-geek (who just rode from SF to Chicago on an aluminum frame), I completely agree.
The only reason I haven't gone to steel is money -- I bought my bike before I knew what I know now about materials.
I think this bamboo bike is really neat and really cool. Where I think it could take off is the cheap, replaceable commuter bike market.
But like aluminum, titanium, and carbon fiber, bamboo seems like it would be a bitch to fix if splintered the material or cracked it somehow, not unlike the
Re:An explaination for non-bike-geeks (Score:2)
I will try as you really don't do jack to support your claims. I've worked with aluminum for half a decade and prefer it more than steel and stainless steel.
There has been a disturbing trend for wannabee bikers to adopt the freakiest lightest materials at the expense of all other properties.
What other properties? Exactly how is aluminum a "freak" material?
A steel frame will last for years of hard riding, and still feel as plush as
Sustainable? (Score:2, Troll)
As for aluminum, it's manufacture costs is due to our limited foundary technology, not because of any peculiar property of aluminum. Also, aluminum is a relatively rare metal when compared to the iron it often stands in for.
Rather than deforesting vast tracts of already endangered bamboo forests (which is already leading to the demise of the Panda - not that the stupid beast deserves a future in the ecosystem), folks
Re:Sustainable? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sustainable? (Score:2)
Re:Sustainable? (Score:2)
Mountain biking (Score:5, Interesting)
There are suspension forks which can be purchased for mountain bikes and some offer read suspension.
Assuming, the metal suspension fork is kept and a decent diameter bamboo tubing is used - would the bamboo have sufficient strength, durability and shock absorbing qualities to make a good mountain bike?
One way or another it would be interesting to try, that's for sure.
Re:Mountain biking (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Mountain biking (Score:3, Insightful)
You'd eventually wear out your bike like that. Much faster than any commonly used bike material, I'm sure.
I'd be concerned about the glue being too brittle to deal with serious vibrations, too, but they might be able to come up with the right kind,
It must be fast....... (Score:2, Funny)
Just great, another trust fund hippy toy. (Score:2)
Wow, I want one! (Score:3, Insightful)
Since bamboo is so plentiful, I hope this would be uber-cheap. It would be great if I could ride around on a $15 bicycle... I wouldn't really care if it got stolen, but then again, nobody would really want to steal it if they knew how cheap it was...
Re:Wow, I want one! (Score:3, Insightful)
Will I have to care for a laminated bamboo bike by oiling it or reweatherproofing it in some way? Will I have to carefully clean and dry it af
Bamboo is cool (Score:5, Informative)
My Structural engineer friend told me that Bamboo is better than steel if used properly and since it just grows like grass it's basically free.
A bamboo bycicle would be neat but, as a natural product you aren't going to get uniform material to work with so every bike would probably be completeley different to an other. You wouldn't be able to mass produce these things.
Doing a little googling I found this report about using bamboo instead of steel in reinforced concrete. [romanconcrete.com]
any way that's my bit out of the way.
A
I Bet Steel is Still the Better Choice (Score:5, Interesting)
This is a strong step towards making bicycling more sustainable, expecially in contrast to aluminum, one of the most resource demanding materials that exist.
It's a cool looking bike, but there's a few things worth mentioning. First of all, compared to driving cars, any form of bicycle is the most sustainable mechanized transport imaginable. I think if we have to worry about the fifteen pounds of metal used for each bicycle, then we might as well give up all hope that humans can survive on the planet. Because if things are that bad, the millions of people buying SUV's are going to put us over the edge in no time, no matter what material we fashion bicycles out of.
Secondly, the summary says that aluminum is "one of the most resource demanding materials that exist."
That statement strikes me as terribly disingenuous, if it's not also mentioned that recycled aluminum does away with about 95% of the energies [boc.com] needed to extract aluminum from ore. And besides, how many bicycles are actually made from aluminum or fancy alloys/composites? No bicycle I've ever ridden, I know that much. And certainly not the bikes that are going to be produced for developing countries.
The real question here is how much extra work goes into fabricating a bamboo bike, vs. mass producing a steel-framed bike that's totally useful to anyone who's not a racing enthusiast. Because I would bet that making bamboo bikes in quantity would take fivefold or even tenfold the labor of stamping out cheap steel-framed bikes. And if that's the case, bamboo bikes could never be within reach of the poor.
Given how eco-friendly a steel-framed bike is, it's probably counterproductive to devote attention to an alternative that would probably be fundamentally unsuited to mass production.
does bicycle production use THAT much? (Score:2)
Do bikes really use so much aluminum that it has a noticable effect on the aluminum market? There are many, many things that use aluminum, and I have never heard of the industry having troubles being "sustainable."
Re:does bicycle production use THAT much? (Score:2)
Simple Answer: No. Hell no. In fact, most consumer bikes are made of steel alloy. Aluminum bikes are generally more expensive, starting at around $500-600 last time I checked. People who want a "practical, eco-friendly" bike would not spend that much in the first place. Most people who want a lightweight bike could really care less about what the 5 pounds of aluminum in their bike frame
environment? quantity? economy? (Score:2, Insightful)
Bamboo bikes have existed for over 100 years (Score:5, Informative)
They don't work very well. Bamboo is strong, but it's also very flexible. This is also the reason that molded plastic bikes ( as opposed to fiber reineforced plastic bikes) have never worked. If a plastic is ridid enough to make a good bike frame it's also to brittle.
Aluminum is energy intensive to originally produce, but the cheapest and easiest metal to recycle. It also doesn't rust away to unusable oxide, making aluminum the most green of the metals in the long run.
In any case you'll still find most bikes made of steel, because iron is common, easy to smelt, easy to turn into high quality steel, easy to recycle, cheap, and, while not necessarily the highest performing material for a bike frame in any particular measurment, it is, nonetheless, in the top 90 percentile in every attribute needed to make a good bike frame.
What's more, you need very little steel to make a bike whose usable lifespan may be measured in decades. I have two ridable children's trikes over 100 years old.
There's simply nothing about bamboo bikes that make them more sustainable than a steel bike, and they're nowhere near as good.
KFG
Turns heads in Christiania (Score:3, Funny)
The Highroad to Environmental Destruction (Score:2)
Beware Mr. Deslandes... The Tree Nazies cometh.
Make it out of... (Score:5, Funny)
Sweet!
Gilligan's Island (Score:4, Funny)
Did anyone see the episode where the professor made a bamboo car? Why he didn't just make a bamboo boat is beyond me.
Every teenager's dream (Score:3, Funny)
Kids, to those of you who just don't have enough reasons to be picked on and beaten up in middle school, we give you... THIS BAMBOO BICYCLE!
Complete with a detachable frame for easier caning.
Can't win for losing... (Score:3, Insightful)
Fine, get excited about the technology involved here, but spare me the statements like that. Everytime I ride to work, I keep a car or about 1/30th of a bus off the road. (I realize I'm not actually 'keeping the bus off the road', but work with me here.) I don't even need to go on about what a retarded statement that is, to call bicycles anything but a vehicle of sustainability.
What's next? Smack-talking a water powered car because it's a drought season?
Hmm (Score:4, Funny)
I can't wait to get one (Score:3, Funny)
I'm going to keep it in my garage with my Segway(tm) and my electric car.
I'll order one as soon as I finish this bag O-lean chips!
Done before (Score:4, Informative)
As some folks have pointed out, the problem with wooden bikes is that they flex. Badly.
That means your chainline won't stay straight. It will rub, and the gears will try to shift by themselves. Note that the bamboo bike in the picture doesn't have derailleurs. There's a reason.
To reduce flex, you have to increase the diameter of the bamboo tubing. At some point, it becomes impractical-- rather like riding a tree trunk down the street.
The designer of this bamboo ride seems to have tried to compensate for the flexy tubing by adding a brace across the main diamond of the frame. It really won't help much if the rider is strong or heavy. The bottom bracket is gonna feel like it's made of rubber.
There's also the matter of frame alignment. I don't care what you coat bamboo with--it's going to change shape with temperature and humidity. Even casual riders on low-end bambo bikes will be frustrated by a ride that doesn't track in a straight line.
My dad used to race track bikes with wooden rims. They were notoriously dangerous. Riding a bicycle is risky enough without having to worry about being impaled by its wreckage.
If you're really concerned about the resources consumed by aluminim or titanium framesets, there's always steel. Modern steel bike tubing approaches the low weight of aluminum and provides more forgiving ride characteristics. There are also cabon fiber and composite alternatives.
The bamboo bike is a head-turner. But bamboo sucks as a bicycle frame material.
Re:hemp (Score:2)
Re:It wil make you fat (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This Rocks! (Score:4, Insightful)
No, because a bamboo bike would be more expensive and less durable than a steel one.
The ability to have a cheap bicycle, made from sustainable materials is an incredible thing for these people
Except that it's impossible. Can they make a bamboo hub or chain? What about the lugs? Wheels? Gear wheel? Ball bearings?
I'm sure in Laos you can buy cheap Chinese-made bikes. (Flying Pigeon, eg). They ARE ALREADY "sustainable". All they need are new tires every ear or so, and put some oil on the chain when it rains, regrease the bearings once a year or two, repaint every 10 years. You find little roadside shops where guys fix bikes (patch flats, fix most other problems with a hammer and a wrench) for pennies in the third world. (I've biked in Indonesia, Thailand and China.) With minimum maintenance they last for decades. Bamboo bikes are a novelty item for rich Westerners, completely useless to the third world.