I was always fascinated by bicycles and grew up cycling around Chennai.
After seeing one of Craig Calfee’s bamboo bikes , i wanted to make one of my own.
After seeing one of Craig Calfee’s bamboo bikes , i wanted to make one of my own.
I was also asked by a friend to try and come up with a low cost, fast and
efficient method to manufacture bamboo cycles from scrapped bicycle frames. I worked on the cycles in my summer break and came up with two processes one taking a month to make
a cycle and the other took three days.
efficient method to manufacture bamboo cycles from scrapped bicycle frames. I worked on the cycles in my summer break and came up with two processes one taking a month to make
a cycle and the other took three days.
Materials Used:
- Treated bamboo
- Carbon Fiber 12k
- Epoxy
- Frame from scrapped Bicycle
In the images you can see the different stages of assembly of the cycle.
Here I used a very simple table mounted jig. I replaced the metal tubes with
bamboo. The bamboo was bored to fit the metal frame. The seat post and the front
post were aligned by eye.
bamboo. The bamboo was bored to fit the metal frame. The seat post and the front
post were aligned by eye.
The joints are reinforced with carbon fiber and epoxy. The hardened carbon fiber was then sanded and more layers of fiber and epoxy were added. I used carbon dust with epoxy as a filler. After the frames were completed a few hours was all it took to get cycle assembled and up and running.
