It's probably worth it for much better riders or pros for the strength to weight ratio. They are metal precisely because I don't think the application is demanding enough to warrant the added cost. Bikes are not particularly strong or durable because they don't have to be.ītw, all my bikes are made of metal inb4 you label me as some carbon fanboy. Then we're in agreement, but I already said that above.
Unless you mean that there is almost no comparison in the levels of strength, durability, reliability, accuracy or tolerances. The complete project took around three months to complete with around 50 hours alone dedicated to building the Why exactly is there no comparison?Įspecially knowing full well that the bike industry uses pre-existing engineering and design knowledge from those other industries in almost everything it does and very rarely invents anything on its own. For example, the swing link that drives the shock is from a Stanton Switch9er FS, the Idler is from a Druid and the main pivot is a bottom bracket. It's quite a messy and awkward approach which takes a lot of time but is necessary." Once each lug has been built and cured hard, it is then sanded by hand for several hours until it's uniform and smooth enough for a clearcoat.Īs Jason doesn't have a workshop or much equipment, he had to use as many off-the-shelf parts as possible to complete the bike. Basically, you take dry carbon fiber, wet it up with resin, and then apply it to the joint. He explains, "The tubes are mitred and tacked together, then the lug is built up by hand by wrapping carbon fiber using a 'wet layup' technique. Most carbon we're used to seeing in mountain biking comes out of a mold, but Jason has actually built this entire bike by hand. The bike is built from two main components, bamboo tubes and carbon lugs. The bamboo and carbon parts are held together with epoxy resin He says, "I find the vibration damping and slight flex allows you to go faster and push a little harder than usual with more grip and less fatigue - particularly, way less arm pump."
He first tried the material out of curiosity on a road bike and said it felt like the road had been freshly tarmacked. Jason is also eager to harness the damping qualities of the material too. It's a composite material with natural fibers embedded in a resin-like material and refined over millions of years of evolution. So, why bamboo? It may seem like an unusual material to build a mountain bike from, but Jason actually argues that bamboo is nature's carbon fiber. He built himself a hardcore hardtail last year and the next logical step from there was to step into the world of full suspension. He has been building bamboo bikes since 2010 using relatively simple methods but was inspired to push himself after watching a YouTube video from Cobra Framebuilding that pushed him to learn CAD and 3D printing. More info: bike was built by Jason O'Nions, who doesn't have a bike building background but more than makes up for it with a lifelong passion for bikes and a 'tinkerer's mentality'.
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