bamboo bike building workshop in SF

[eddief]

rode with a guy today who mentioned his interest in building a bamboo bike. i sort of brushed off the idea, but then came home and googled the company here in SF. too good to be true? just right to be fun and end up with a bamboo frame or bike?

http://bamboobikestudio.com/about/

[Kontact]

I am disturbed that their multipage website doesn't include a single photo of a finished bike. Even the video is taken at an angle to avoid showing the final product.

[tannhauser]

I rode a bike built by a friend in this workshop: pretty good.

Bamboo is a suitable material for frames, but is highly variable.

Not for everyone, but its application in transpo bikes is very relevant.

[foo_fighter]

It's real enough and one of the founders was featured on the recent discovery channel series about bike messengers.

I looked into for a commuter, but the frame alone was ~$650, and when you see frame/forks here for 1k or less for steel/carbon/titanium it was a little hard to
swallow.

Still, it's very cool to build your own frame and it's a cool material. When sanner cycles was in palo alto he had a steel frame building class for a little more than that which also would have been cool.

[muz]

FYI, Tim Sanner is coming back to the Bay Area, and he said he will consider more framebuilding classes.

[tannhauser]

It's real enough and one of the founders was featured on the recent discovery channel series about bike messengers.

I looked into for a commuter, but the frame alone was ~$650, and when you see frame/forks here for 1k or less for steel/carbon/titanium it was a little hard to
swallow.

Still, it's very cool to build your own frame and it's a cool material. When sanner cycles was in palo alto he had a steel frame building class for a little more than that which also would have been cool.


Friend said her frame/class was "a few hundred", which made the thing workable. Bamboo, resin, epoxy.

Cured, built, done.

I cut a bamboo spacer for her short ht.

[DRietz]

FYI, Tim Sanner is coming back to the Bay Area, and he said he will consider more framebuilding classes.

Why the hell did he leave?!

[Ti_on_Steel]

I saw some of their bikes at the NYC Maker Fair. You can get a DIY kit and make them at home. They give you everything you need except for the bamboo which you can source locally. I rode one around the parking lot and it seemed like a great frame regardless of material.