ANTHONY STUART

About the Project

During Independent Activities Period (IAP), my roommate and I built a bamboo bike frame through a workshop hosted by the company Bamboo Bicycles Beijing. The workshop took a total of three long, but fun days of nonstop working.

Day 1
On the first day, we selected pieces of bamboo to use for the top tube, down tube, seat stays, and chainstays of the bike. After selecting our pieces, we measured and cut the pieces of bamboo to length, then used a Dremel to miter the wooden pieces so that they meshed together perfectly. We also grooved the edges of each piece of bamboo in order to make it easier for us to connect the pieces with carbon fiber later.  We ended the day by wrapping our bamboo pieces in plastic wrap so that they wouldn't split due to changes in temperature. 

Day 2
We started the day by peeling back the plastic wrap to reveal the grooves we had made the day before, and securing the wrap in position with a piece of tape. We then spent the rest of the day securing the joints with a mixture of fiberglass, carbon fiber strips, and high-strength epoxy. This process involved dipping the carbon fiber in epoxy and wrapping it many times around the key joints to provide structural stability. We ended the day by wrapping a tight layer of tape around the carbon fiber strips to squish them together while they dried overnight.

Day 3
The final day of the program: clean up day. We spent the day removing the tape that we had wrapped around the joints (a surprisingly difficult task, thanks to the epoxy), and grinding down excess carbon fiber using a Dremel. By the end of the day, we had our own bamboo bike frame and an awesome experience in hands-on engineering.

For more info, feel free to check out Bamboo Bicycles Beijing on Facebook and like their page! They were awesome teachers, and they are doing lots of cool work with bamboo bikes in China and other parts of the world. 
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BBB Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=bamboo%20bicycles%20beijing