Singletrack: Go behind-the-scenes to see what it takes to build your own frame

Singletrack Magazine documents their editor Wil's six-month journey building a bamboo bike from our home build kit — complete with video series.

For those of you who missed it, last year Wil was challenged to build a bike out of bamboo. A home build kit, complete with an extensive manual and support from the suppliers throughout the process. Should be easy, right?

Most of us avoided the subject and left him to it. Those brave enough to enter the studio whilst he was working on the frame got an insight into just how stressful this process was for Wil, stress that can be put down to the fact he's a perfectionist that had no prior knowledge in building a bike, working with bamboo, or woodworking in general.

We'd like to pass on our thanks to the Bamboo Bicycle Club for providing us with a Home Build Kit in the first place, and for facilitating this hilarious experience. If you're interested in building your own frame out of bamboo, check out the Bamboo Bicycle Club website for more info.

"Despite the stress and frustrations, there's nothing quite as satisfying as standing back and looking at a bike frame, and being able to say 'Yeah, I built that!'"

— darrenhowe, Singletrack reader

In response to questions about the amount of materials used compared to carbon fibre manufacturing, Singletrack editor Chipps explained:

"It's a matter of scale. The benefits of bamboo bikes is that you can make them one at a time in your (or their) workshop. Closed tools only make sense once you're making hundreds of the things..."

— Chipps, Singletrack Editor

And so after six long, stressful months, Wil finally completed the Bamboo Bastard. And from the sounds of things, he was quite pleasantly surprised that a) it didn't fall apart, and b) that it actually rode quite well.

Originally published: Singletrack Magazine, 16 July 2018
Author: Amanda Wishart
Video Series: Building a Bamboo Bike (3 parts)
Original article: Read on Singletrack