Frame made out of bamboo, pictured here is a My Boo that touts a partnership with a fair trade social program in Ghana to make the frames.
It's supposed to be more ecological, for obvious reasons. Weight on one is about 15kg, which is pretty good for a kitted out city bike.
I can't speak to longevity of this and whether it actually pans out vs. say, a steel bike that you keep welding back together, on account of these haven't really been around too long. It's held together via a composite glue made out of hemp and resin, so at least they're following through here I suppose.
Reviews I've read is that the ride quality is really nice, being stiff yet compliant in the ride cases as to not make it a boneshaker.
Price of these is, obviously, fairly high, these'd run you around 3000€ euros, I'd argue a comparable bike made out of traditional materials would run you maybe 800€ new. But I'd argue it's more a proof of concept.
It looks cool but ecologically I dont think it's much better than steel I would definitely buy something like this to look cool af tho
You can theoretically ship of theseus a steel bike into pretty much forever, the question is whether that actually happens. I know when I wanted to get one of my frames welded back together every bike shop refused on insurance based reasons, which is where I assume most people stop trying and just scrap it whichever way, because at that point you either gotta know how to weld or know a guy or business who's happy to do under the table deals for this type of thing and also trusts you won't rat them out
I live in a third world country we basically fix everything like this Actually near my work is a guy who fixes bikes exactly how you described We can't afford new things so we fix whatever we have
There is another guy that literally solders gpus and one that still fixes iPhone 5 and older models
I got mine fixed by a welding shop that was happy to do under the table deals, too, but looking at this country sociologically that's not the kind of skillset I'd argue most people posess tbh.
It's a side effect of living in a "richer" country Things are cheaper to replace than fix a lot of the time
I was curious if bamboo was really that beneficial over steel which can be recycled. For example, the glue might complicate disposal of the bamboo similar to how the epoxy used for carbon fiber frames complicates their disposal.
I found this study[1] on the topic from 2016 which claims that “the overall environmental impact of the bamboo bicycle frame is about 50% less than aluminium and about 30% less than steel bicycle frames in all impact categories, except Freshwater Aquatic Ecotoxicity and Terrestrial Ecotoxicity.”
Sounds like an improvement. I hope they can find a way to reduce the weight because 15kg is very heavy compared to my steel bike.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652616320571 ↩︎
Thanks for the reseach!
15kg is very heavy compared to my steel bike.
Just to be sure, that's for the entire bike with wheels and bars and fenders and cargo rack and lights and such, not just the frame. Adds up, I recently bought an aluminium frame bike with all the fixings that's about 200g heavier and even that's pretty good. Well, not for the pricepoint obviously, but then this is basically concept production
You’re right, I was thinking my bike was a lot lighter, but it’s 12 kg. So not too far off.
I rode one for a while until one of the joints de laminated. The joint was fine but it pulled away from the bamboo. Never got around to fixing it.
3000 euros
also it still uses rubber. steel / aluminum is by far the least problematic part of a bike
these haven't really been around too long
Calfree has been making them for the public since 2005
3000Euros is way too expensive for a bike, but if you have the high income to donate to causes, I guess this is a good way to do it.
There some companies offering frame kits that consist of a set of lugs and (optionally) some prepared bamboo. I feel like that's a better way from a longevity perspective than trying to tie or laminate things together, especially since the joints seem like the most obvious point of failure.
