Carbon Bamboo Road Bike By Mike

Design: Carbon Road Frame
Build: Carbon Road Frame
Location: Sydney, Australia

What made you decide to build a bamboo bike?

Always wanted to build a timber bike. Bamboo is technically grass …but close enough!

Did you enjoy building the bicycle from scratch and would you recommend the experience?

Absolutely. The jigs were well made, everything thing came together well. The instruction manual was first class.

What did you find most difficult about your bike build?

A couple of things. Originally I was going to use a standard double chainring setup, however I had trouble with the front derailleur, so went for a single in the end. Happy with that. Also, user error, I glued the brake block in back-to-front so had to get James to shoot me another one! All good now. If I had my time again I'd probably go with the disc kit available on the site, however I wanted to use as many parts as possible from a very nice donor bike with a cracked carbon frame!

What was the easiest part of the build?

Cutting / filing the frame down to size for the dry fit, then gluing it together. James is also on hand for advice! ...and I asked a few times! The conversations between London and Sydney worked fine.

How would you describe the ride of your finished bike?

Really light, really smooth. I've always liked "different" - this fits the bill! I name all my bikes (yes, I know, a bit odd!), so very pleased to ride “Kato, the bamboo ninja”!

What would you improve about the build experience or your finished bike?

My rear wheel is slightly off centre, most probably user error, no big game breaker, however having a measurement guide from the bottom bracket to the rear dropouts to ensure precise gluing might help. I think this is really only an issue when using caliper brakes.