Road Bike by Gabriel
10 Nov 2021
Design: Road Flax Build
Build: Road Flax build with Sram Apex groupset
Location: London, UK
What made you decide to build a bamboo bike?
I can say I usually work a lot on my computer and I wanted to spend some hours on building something with my own hands. I also have seen a bamboo bike in pictures and I knew I must try to build one someday
Did you enjoy building the bicycle from scratch and would you recommend the experience?
For this I opted not to use any electric equipment and see if I can get it over the line with just hand tools. I can say I have enjoyed every hour of building this bicycle. I was working on front of the screen during the days and on the bamboo on the evenings
What did you find most difficult about your bike build?
As I don't have much experience on building things with my own hands, I had some trouble on almost every step, but one of the hardest things was to constantly align and re-check the the position of the back wheel while I was glueing the back-end of the bike.
What was the easiest part of the build?
The easiest part of the build for me is the one that you cannot go wrong. So, in the sanding process you spend quite a lot of time but it's very hard to not get it right, and you can always adjust to your needs. Also in the finishing process, the bike will perform at is best no matter how the finish goes.
How would you describe the ride of your finished bike?
Nothing compares with the feeling when you enjoy a thing made by yourself. I tasted this for the very first time, and boy this feels so good. The bike itself performs excellent, was also the quickest and lightest ride I had, never ridden a bike being so flexible and responsive. So everything combined really amazed me.
What would you improve about the build experience or your finished bike?
The build experience is simply great. There were some small issues regarding the back wheel alignment which I know was fixed by BambooBicycleClub in the meantime by adding the modular design. A couple of mistakes I done was because I have not bought the parts before the beginning the frame, so I would recommend to anyone to first buy the parts and then begin the build as you will always need to measure using the real parts. The brake cable stops have cracked from the first uses, so I had to buy a carbon fiber one that is bolt inserted. I think that the bamboo + glue does not hold the cable stop very well.
