[flyingdog]

http://www.pandabicycles.com/

http://reviews.mtbr.com/panda-bicycles-featured-on-how-its-made

 

[John_V]

I saw the episode on "How It's Made", where they built the bamboo bikes. It was very interesting. "How It's Made", is one of my favorite shows. Maybe they can get together with the guy that build the cardboard bike and come up with a new standard for building bikes.

 

[omnivox42]

Here are some pictures from a guy who built his own. Think its a neat concept, using bamboo.

http://www.twospoke.com/forum/f27/just-had-share-bamboo-bike-8847/

 

[LiveFreeRideHard]

these are really neat frame designs. I also really like the custom built one. I wonder if they absorb more shock. it seems like they would.

 

[omnivox42]

They say the do. I wonder how rigid they are. Is there anyflex in the frame that will waste power?

 

[LiveFreeRideHard]

I never thought of that. I mean bamboo is pretty strong but I was always under the impression that part of its strength comes from its flexibility.

 

[Sneakers]

I like the looks of the Calfee the best, in my opinion of course. I also like how he puts them together using green material and assembly process.

See: http://www.calfeedesign.com/products/bamboo/

And read about the bamboo process under the tech papers tab, it's quite interesting.

If I wanted the most unusual bike and money was no object I would get the Calfee.

 

[omnivox42]

I agree the Calfee bikes look great. There is also a bike maker out of Africa that does bamboo frames.

 

[LiveFreeRideHard]

very interesting and good read. it's incredible seeing organic materials being used for bikes that still have strength and rigidity. I wonder if climate or location rather would alter the lifespan of a frame like this. for example an area like wny where we face very cold temperatures, dry air and heavy snow in the winter months and hot temperatures, and very humid heavier air from the great lakes during the summer months. by no means am I hating on the idea I'm more or less just curious to how an organic material would hold up over time in seasonal climate changes.

 

[Sneakers]

very interesting and good read. it's incredible seeing organic materials being used for bikes that still have strength and rigidity. I wonder if climate or location rather would alter the lifespan of a frame like this. for example an area like wny where we face very cold temperatures, dry air and heavy snow in the winter months and hot temperatures, and very humid heavier air from the great lakes during the summer months. by no means am I hating on the idea I'm more or less just curious to how an organic material would hold up over time in seasonal climate changes.

My understanding from what I've read there hasn't been any issues with climate changes on Bamboo, and as far as I know all bamboo manufactures treat their frames with weatherproofing. Having said that I wouldn't ride it in the snow, but then again I wouldn't ride any of my bikes in the snow.

Last time I visited the Calfee site the Bamboo stuff was in the tech section, I didn't see it there now, but this is it: http://www.calfeedesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/BikeMonkey12_Calfee.pdf The thing about the Calfee design is the entire frame looks natural, not bamboo tubes with some sort of lug, instead they use hemp twine giving the entire frame a natural look. Pretty cool.

The other thing I like about this bike, it looks like an artist crafted the bike by hand and not some computer and robots on a assembly line.