Selecting Bamboo for a Bicycle
Workshop Wednesdays, Series 01, Episode 06
Frame Building - How to Select Bamboo for a Bicycle with James Marr
🔴Recorded live on Wednesday, November 11th, 2020 at 5.30 pm (GMT) in London, U.K 🔴
The bamboo you pick for your frame will determine the performance of your bicycle. For this reason, our sixth live #workshopwednesdays session ran our audience through the bamboo selection process for the front triangle and discussed diameters and nodes, followed by looking at the rear triangle, MTB yoke building and finally some custom tubing!
▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
0:00 - Intro
0:28 - Why is bamboo a great material for a bicycle?
2:05 - Overview of workshop
2:25 - The most important step, pouring a beer in a bamboo mug 🍻
3:00 - Picking the down tube
5:07 - Selecting the seat tube
6:15 - Picking the top tube
6:57 - Summary of front triangle
7:14 - Picking bamboo for the rear triangle
7:51 - Selecting bamboo for chain stays
8:53 - Picking the seat stay tubes
10:30 - Summary of all steps
11:43 - Tips on growing bamboo for your bicycle
12:51 - Building a mountain bike from bamboo
14:16 - Creating different shapes and custom tubing with bamboo
15:20 - Questions from our live audience
15:32 - What type of bamboo to use for building a bicycle
16:08 - Sign off
--------
Our live #workshopwednedays videos will help you to learn more about bamboo bicycles, tips and tricks on how to fit components, maintain your bike and how to be creative with bamboo. Hosted by James Marr, a bicycle designer and an engineer, James goes live every other Wednesday to help you learn about building a bamboo bicycle and takes your questions and announces promotions and deals of the week!
🪡 James' workshop apron was made by Georgina Habgood https://www.instagram.com/geeorrrge/ from denim deadstock. She is hoping to make the sewing pattern available for free soon.
✏️ Graphic design and titles by Hasan Waliany https://www.instagram.com/herby_werby/
If you’re building a bamboo bicycle frame, need help or would like to learn more about our Home Build kits, have a look at this link: https://bamboobicycleclub.org/products/lugged-kit-frame
Best way to learn about us is by visiting our Club News for detailed build reviews by our community of bamboo bicycle builders: https://bamboobicycleclub.org/blogs/club-news
"Founded in London in 2012 by James Marr, bamboo is said to have ideal properties for bike construction with its 'excellent vibration dampening effects', resistance to stress and durability."
Bamboo selection is the first and arguably most important step in building a bamboo bicycle. The quality of the finished frame depends heavily on the quality of the raw material — and bamboo varies significantly in wall thickness, straightness, density, and moisture content. This tutorial teaches you to assess bamboo culms with the same confidence as an experienced BBC frame builder.
Species: Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis/pubescens) is the BBC's primary species for frame building. It offers the highest tensile strength (approximately 400 MPa) and most consistent wall thickness of the commonly available species. Guadua bamboo (used in South American frame building) is also excellent but harder to source in Europe. Avoid decorative species — they are bred for aesthetics, not structural performance.
Age: Select culms at three to four years of growth. Younger culms are green and flexible; older culms develop cracks and degrade internally. Well-cured Moso bamboo has a pale golden colour with a slightly waxy surface. Green-tinged culms are too young; grey or heavily patchy culms are too old.
Wall thickness: BBC frames require a minimum wall thickness of 7mm for the down tube and chainstay positions, and 5mm for the top tube and seat tube. Measure wall thickness at the cut end of the culm with calipers. Culms with consistent wall thickness throughout their length are preferable to those with significant variation.
Straightness: Hold the culm horizontally and sight along its length. Mild curvature (up to 5mm over 500mm) is acceptable and can be accommodated in the jig setup. Greater curvature creates alignment challenges that affect frame geometry.
"Bamboo Bicycle Club follows a niche-manufacturing business model that prioritises knowledge-sharing over profit-making retail, charging for workshops and kits rather than pre-made products."
The snap test: A well-cured, structurally sound bamboo culm produces a sharp, high-pitched crack when snapped — comparable to the sound of dry wood splitting. A dull thud suggests green bamboo (too young) or internal degradation. The BBC tutorial demonstrates the snap test in detail, including how to interpret the sound and feel of different culms.