How to Build a Bamboo Bike

At the London Stanley Show of 1894, a new form of transportation showed up on the scene: bikes with bamboo frames. The manufacturer offered 12 models of these exotic two-wheelers but closed down five years later, never to be heard from again. Apparently squeezed out by steel-frame cycles, the fad never caught on despite owners' enthusiastic testimonials to the "pleasure" and "durability" recorded in the defunct company's sales catalog.

More than a century later, bamboo is back: A growing number of custom bicycle builders and hobbyists are reviving the craft. Not only are bamboo bicycles visually stunning, but they offer a smooth ride, owing to advantageous vibration characteristics, and provide a tensile (durability) strength greater than steel. So far it's a boutique resurgence, aimed at well-heeled bicycle enthusiasts willing to pay $3000 or more for an artisanal design. But this may soon change.

A team of sustainability researchers from Columbia University envisions bikes built of bamboo as a breakthrough tech for developing countries: Not only could these bikes withstand the wear and tear of rough roads, but building them could become a revitalizing industry that replaces cheap, low-quality imports with domestically built bikes. Moreover, bamboo grows without fertilizers, requires low levels of energy to produce, and is locally available in many parts of the developing world.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/how-to-build-a-bamboo-bike?src=rss

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