themosquitoking
Guru
- Location
- Spain
What colour are you going to paint it when it's finished?
Self Build Bamboo Bike Frame Kit Build Thread
- Thread starter chriswoody
- Start date
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raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
Oi, you owe me a keyboard now, this ones all soggy.
OP
OP
chriswoody
Legendary Member
- Location
- Northern Germany
Thanks, I'm definitely enjoying the challenges so far and feeling really pleased with the results. Strangely as much as I'd love a quick spin on a superbike, your right it would never give me as much satisfaction as this.
Well most of it will be natural Bamboo, but the lugs will be painted. What colour though? Well I keep looking on their Instagram page at other peoples finished builds and I keep finding new inspiration so I'm not 100% sure yet.
RoubaixCube
~Tribanese~
- Location
- London, UK
I was thinking black and white to keep the local panda's off it. They might think its one of their own.
OP
OP
chriswoody
Legendary Member
- Location
- Northern Germany
Big Update Part 1
So far on this build I've just been working in the evenings, the odd half an hour here and there. However, the next step requires a solid 4 hour session to make sure that you complete it in one go. So the wife has taken the kids off today and with a massive stack of marking to do and nearly 100 reports to write, I decided to do the sensible thing and work on the bike!
I've been working up to this point, by preparing all of the joints, making sure that there are no big gaps and generally getting everything together. So this morning the worktable looked like this:
The first step is to cut the hemp to size and put the correct number of pieces by each joint so that were ready to go. There are two different thicknesses of hemp, thinner for the fine sections and thicker for the final wrap.
Then it was a case of diving in and just going for it. Not much chance to take photos, so if you want to see what I was up to, then take a look at the video in a previous post above. The dropouts are the first area to be bound and are fairly straight forward to do. After wrapping and soaking in resin, the joint is wrapped in electrical tape to provide compression whilst the glue sets.
So after several hours hard work the table was a complete mess, but everything was done and finished.
So I need to wait a few hours now for the resin to set enough to remove the tape and then release the frame from the jig. Quite nervous and excited now and just hoping I've not stuffed anything up.
I'll pop back later with some photos of the unwrapped frame free of the jig and I'll either be drowning my sorrows or celebrating!
So far on this build I've just been working in the evenings, the odd half an hour here and there. However, the next step requires a solid 4 hour session to make sure that you complete it in one go. So the wife has taken the kids off today and with a massive stack of marking to do and nearly 100 reports to write, I decided to do the sensible thing and work on the bike!
I've been working up to this point, by preparing all of the joints, making sure that there are no big gaps and generally getting everything together. So this morning the worktable looked like this:
The first step is to cut the hemp to size and put the correct number of pieces by each joint so that were ready to go. There are two different thicknesses of hemp, thinner for the fine sections and thicker for the final wrap.
Then it was a case of diving in and just going for it. Not much chance to take photos, so if you want to see what I was up to, then take a look at the video in a previous post above. The dropouts are the first area to be bound and are fairly straight forward to do. After wrapping and soaking in resin, the joint is wrapped in electrical tape to provide compression whilst the glue sets.
So after several hours hard work the table was a complete mess, but everything was done and finished.
So I need to wait a few hours now for the resin to set enough to remove the tape and then release the frame from the jig. Quite nervous and excited now and just hoping I've not stuffed anything up.
I'll pop back later with some photos of the unwrapped frame free of the jig and I'll either be drowning my sorrows or celebrating!
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
PpPete
Legendary Member
- Location
- Chandler's Ford
breath suitably bated........
roadrash
cycle chatterer
- Location
- sitting on the edge of wigan pier
ooh......I cant hold my breath that long, cant wait to see it
OP
OP
chriswoody
Legendary Member
- Location
- Northern Germany
Update Part 2
Sorry about the delay folks, kids needed putting to bed, hope no ones turned blue from holding their breath!
Anyway, the resin took a while to dry enough for the tape to be removed and then the tape put up a bit of a fight, but we got there in the end. So without further ado here's the frame in almost all it's glory:
That didn't go too badly. There's a few places that could be a lot neater, but structurally it's all sound and it feels really light. Heres a few close ups:
So constructions finished and it's now a case of working towards the final finish. So far I've removed some of the excess resin with a Stanley knife, at this stage it's too dangerous to sand. When it's fully cured and dried I'll go over it with some sand paper and start the process of smoothing down the lugs. Still some way to go yet.
Sorry about the delay folks, kids needed putting to bed, hope no ones turned blue from holding their breath!
Anyway, the resin took a while to dry enough for the tape to be removed and then the tape put up a bit of a fight, but we got there in the end. So without further ado here's the frame in almost all it's glory:
That didn't go too badly. There's a few places that could be a lot neater, but structurally it's all sound and it feels really light. Heres a few close ups:
So constructions finished and it's now a case of working towards the final finish. So far I've removed some of the excess resin with a Stanley knife, at this stage it's too dangerous to sand. When it's fully cured and dried I'll go over it with some sand paper and start the process of smoothing down the lugs. Still some way to go yet.
I can't wait to see it with the protective paper removed and the joints tidied up a bit 
Looks like it should clean up quite nicely 
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
I've missed half a series of Sons of Anarchy because of this thread!
U
User32269
Guest
Really enjoyed this thread! Cheers! Just hoping that your maiden ride doesn't see you ambushed by a mob of hungry pandas.
Can't wait to see finished bike.
Can't wait to see finished bike.
U
User32269
Guest
The producers are furious that their leading shirtless hunk has been unavailable for filming!
@chriswoody It must have cured by now 
