The Big-Bam-Boo

[William]

Ok, I have to admit that I'm intrigued by the Bamboo bike. Calfee claims to use different thicknesses of Bamboo to tune to the riders size & weight. It would be nice to know how many bikes they've built for riders bigger than 6' 6" and 250+ pounds.

I wonder how Rattan would stack up? I beat the crap out of rattan daily and you'd be surprised how well it holds up in full power striking and ranging drills smashing stick to stick. I know bamboo doesn't hold up as well in that scenario.

Rambling thoughts...yada yada yada....




William

[rnhood]

Calfee seems to build quite a few tandem bamboos and, the combined weight they carry is often well in excess of 250 lbs. Also, I believe Leonard Zinn has one (though it could be a carbon one) and, if I remember correctly he is a big fellow. Y

[Russity]

I gave my good friend Ling Ling a call down at the Open air Beijing Hilton and he says the only good thing about a bamboo bike is that he gets to gnaw on it once he's arrived at the smoking club. Keeps him off the cohibas for a while.

He reckons cork gives a more flexible ride for the discerning tourer and for the racing pandas amongst the guys, nothing beats a bit of palm tree trunk, wrapped in banana skins.

I'm currently fusing together a piece of gator poo and a slab of organic butter and hoping to forge a tubeset that will rival bamboo in the 'green bike' stakes.

Stay posted for future developments

[William]

I gave my good friend Ling Ling a call down at the Open air Beijing Hilton and he says the only good thing about a bamboo bike is that he gets to gnaw on it once he's arrived at the smoking club. Keeps him off the cohibas for a while.

He reckons cork gives a more flexible ride for the discerning tourer and for the racing pandas amongst the guys, nothing beats a bit of palm tree trunk, wrapped in banana skins.

I'm currently fusing together a piece of gator poo and a slab of organic butter and hoping to forge a tubeset that will rival bamboo in the 'green bike' stakes.

Stay posted for future developments


I think you're geographically located closer to Crocks (Salties) than Gators. Salties can live in the brackish waters along the coastlines but are just as happy in freshwater rivers, swamps and billabongs many hundred kilometres inland. Unless you're Steve Irwin (RIP), gathering that poo for your project could be quite dangerous.

http://www.gotpetsonline.com/pictures-gallery/reptile-pictures-breeders-babies/crocodile-pictures-breeders-babies/pictures/crocodile-0001.jpg

Be careful out there.




William

[Ray]

We used to have bamboo in our back yard, back when we had a back yard.

There is NOTHING GOOD about bamboo. Bamboo is perhaps the most pernicious plant/animal/mineral known to man and it should be eradicated at once. It should definitely not be used for something as good and wonderful as a bicycle. Not to mention a bicycle built for two.

I've heard all sorts of good things about the environmental benefits of bamboo. Its all a ruse. Bamboo is EVIL. Take your most unfavorite politician, movie-star, or dictator and think about how much you can't stand them. Let it sink in. Get really really angry. Bamboo is worse. It can have no redeeming qualities. If you buy a bike from it, it may be light weight and fit you today, but by tonight it will be five times its original size and weight and you won't be able to ride it! And it will take over your garage and you won't be able to ride any of your other bikes either. Ever again. Trust me on this. I know about bamboo.

Burn it. Burn it ALL.

-Ray

[rwsaunders]

We used to have bamboo in our back yard, back when we had a back yard.

There is NOTHING GOOD about bamboo. Bamboo is perhaps the most pernicious plant/animal/mineral known to man and it should be eradicated at once. It should definitely not be used for something as good and wonderful as a bicycle. Not to mention a bicycle built for two.

I've heard all sorts of good things about the environmental benefits of bamboo. Its all a ruse. Bamboo is EVIL. Take your most unfavorite politician, movie-star, or dictator and think about how much you can't stand them. Let it sink in. Get really really angry. Bamboo is worse. It can have no redeeming qualities. If you buy a bike from it, it may be light weight and fit you today, but by tonight it will be five times its original size and weight and you won't be able to ride it! And it will take over your garage and you won't be able to ride any of your other bikes either. Ever again. Trust me on this. I know about bamboo.

Burn it. Burn it ALL.

-Ray

Ray...you're going to hear from a bunch of miffed Pandas. :cool:

[William]

We used to have bamboo in our back yard, back when we had a back yard.

There is NOTHING GOOD about bamboo. Bamboo is perhaps the most pernicious plant/animal/mineral known to man and it should be eradicated at once. It should definitely not be used for something as good and wonderful as a bicycle. Not to mention a bicycle built for two.

I've heard all sorts of good things about the environmental benefits of bamboo. Its all a ruse. Bamboo is EVIL. Take your most unfavorite politician, movie-star, or dictator and think about how much you can't stand them. Let it sink in. Get really really angry. Bamboo is worse. It can have no redeeming qualities. If you buy a bike from it, it may be light weight and fit you today, but by tonight it will be five times its original size and weight and you won't be able to ride it! And it will take over your garage and you won't be able to ride any of your other bikes either. Ever again. Trust me on this. I know about bamboo.

Burn it. Burn it ALL.

-Ray

Of course you are correct!! We have some on one corner of our property and you just can't get rid of the stuff. It's by passed our stone wall and into the grass. The only reason it hasn't got a good foothold in the grass is because I mow it down every week. It's still there in the ground. Maybe the Bamboo bike should be sworn off on principle alone....Then again, maybe I could become a tube supplier for Calfee? Hmmmm...




William

[myette10]

I thought this thread was about this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UDm48ImL9w). Heard it on the sirius yesterday morning and it has been stuck. Now even more so.

[beungood]

Ok, I have to admit that I'm intrigued by the Bamboo bike. Calfee claims to use different thicknesses of Bamboo to tune to the riders size & weight. It would be nice to know how many bikes they've built for riders bigger than 6' 6" and 250+ pounds.

I wonder how Rattan would stack up? I beat the crap out of rattan daily and you'd be surprised how well it holds up in full power striking and ranging drills smashing stick to stick. I know bamboo doesn't hold up as well in that scenario.

Rambling thoughts...yada yada yada....




William

I just had frightening flashbacks after reading this....

[dirtdigger88]

There is NOTHING GOOD about bamboo. Bamboo is perhaps the most pernicious plant/animal/mineral known to man and it should be eradicated at once.
Burn it. Burn it ALL.

-Ray

now you understand why Agent Orange was used in Viet Nam . . .

think about that

BTW- NEVER plant the crap on your property- you will NEVER get rid of it- NEVER!!!!

Jason

[Ray]

now you understand why Agent Orange was used in Viet Nam . . .

think about that

BTW- NEVER plant the crap on your property- you will NEVER get rid of it- NEVER!!!!

Jason
Its true. Some idiot planted it on our last place before we moved there 15+ years ago. Nice little corner screen, or so we thought when we bought the place. After discovering in that first spring what thoroughly hateful stuff it is, I managed it aggressively for the whole time we lived there. By the time we left, it was all over the back yard (I kept it mowed, but it came up every spring and you can literally see it growing before your eyes!) and had moved well into our next door neighbor's place and was taking over a stand of trees that they had. We finally just sold the place and the bamboo was not a small part of that decision.

If I could have gotten away with agent orange, napalm, or anything else, I'd have been happy to use it. Damn the long term health consequences.

I was NOT one with nature!

-Ray

[benb]

About 6 weeks ago I received a bamboo shoot & some instructions.. sounds like it is an Asian good luck charm to grow a bamboo plant.

Well the freaky thing is you take the cutting & stick it in a vase and fill it with water.

And it grows.. no it GROWS! Just a little tap water and barely any sun. Crazy stuff.

I went away for a week and it grew at least an inch. Goes through about 1/2 cup of water a week.

So maybe if I get run down by someone's dog while cycling I'll go plant my bamboo in the owners yard. :D

[Ray]

And it grows.. no it GROWS! Just a little tap water and barely any sun. Crazy stuff.

I went away for a week and it grew at least an inch. Goes through about 1/2 cup of water a week.
MUCH faster out in the yard. Once it has a root system established, the shoots will grow about a foot per day when they're new. Less as the plant matures. If you let it. Mid to late spring, when its wet and warm is the worst time for it. You can be out in the yard in the evening with nothing there, go to bed, and wake up to literally a lawn full of six-inch shoots. The memory of it is enough to give me feelings of doom. But then I remember its someone else's problem now :cool:

-Ray

[William]

MUCH faster out in the yard. Once it has a root system established, the shoots will grow about a foot per day when they're new. Less as the plant matures. If you let it. Mid to late spring, when its wet and warm is the worst time for it. You can be out in the yard in the evening with nothing there, go to bed, and wake up to literally a lawn full of six-inch shoots. The memory of it is enough to give me feelings of doom. But then I remember its someone else's problem now :cool:

-Ray

It was here when we moved in. I'm just keeping it locked in between the road and about three feet beyond the rock wall on that corner of our property. Occasionally when I get a hair, I grab a machete and go hack it all down. But I know it will grow back in no time.....I'm just having fun with a machete. :D




William

[benb]

I was just amazed it will grow at all in nothing but tap water.. surely there are a hell of a lot more nutrients in soil.

[Kirk Pacenti]

now you understand why Agent Orange was used in Viet Nam . . .

think about that

BTW- NEVER plant the crap on your property- you will NEVER get rid of it- NEVER!!!!

Jason

My nieghor uses it as a screen between our yards. See claims Bamboo likes a high PH soil (5.5-6.5) and also claims to keep it at bay by lowering the PH in areas she doesn't want it to grow, in this case our property line. I don't know if this is true or not, but I've never had a problem with the stuff spreading to our property...

[Too Tall]

My nieghor uses it as a screen between our yards. See claims Bamboo likes a high PH soil (5.5-6.5) and also claims to keep it at bay by lowering the PH in areas she doesn't want it to grow, in this case our property line. I don't know if this is true or not, but I've never had a problem with the stuff spreading to our property...
That's really interesting.
There is a 1/4 acre bamboo forest at one of the local dog parks. People have created walking paths thru it. When the wind blows it sounds like a 1/4 acre windchime :) Sooooo cool.

[Fixed]

bamboo and coconut

[dirtdigger88]

Kirk- I did some quick searches on some trusted sites about the P.h. thing but I didnt really find anything about it- Im going to call a Hort. Guru that I know to see if he has heard about it

thats not to say its not possible-

are you sure you are not just mowing over the new shoots as they sprout up on your property?

either way- Im glad you are not having an issue- I would kill my neighbors if they planted some in their yards-

Jason

[Ray]

Occasionally when I get a hair, I grab a machete and go hack it all down. But I know it will grow back in no time.....I'm just having fun with a machete. :D
Heh Heh

I don't think I remembered to include the bamboo on the seller's disclosure when we sold the place - didn't seem like there was a question that would have required us to do so. But we left our two machete's sticking out of the yard in bamboo central when we left. Just to be helpful, you understand.

Once infected, the best way to control the stuff is to mow it when the shoots first come up and are only an inch or two high and just really stay on top of it through the spring. But once the grow and harden up (the shoots are really soft for the first several days), a machete is the only way to cope. That or napalm.

-Ray

[jeffg]

it got deserving folks a magic car!

Don't mess with the big bamboo ...