Frame made out of bamboo, pictured here is a My Boo that touts a partnership with a fair trade social program in Ghana to make the frames.
It’s supposed to be more ecological, for obvious reasons. Weight on one is about 15kg, which is pretty good for a kitted out city bike.
I can’t speak to longevity of this and whether it actually pans out vs. say, a steel bike that you keep welding back together, on account of these haven’t really been around too long. It’s held together via a composite glue made out of hemp and resin, so at least they’re following through here I suppose.
Reviews I’ve read is that the ride quality is really nice, being stiff yet compliant in the ride cases as to not make it a boneshaker.
Price of these is, obviously, fairly high, these’d run you around 3000€ euros, I’d argue a comparable bike made out of traditional materials would run you maybe 800€ new. But I’d argue it’s more a proof of concept.
every dentist heading to Ghana rn
3000Euros is way too expensive for a bike, but if you have the high income to donate to causes, I guess this is a good way to do it.
3000 euros
also it still uses rubber. steel / aluminum is by far the least problematic part of a bike
I was curious if bamboo was really that beneficial over steel which can be recycled. For example, the glue might complicate disposal of the bamboo similar to how the epoxy used for carbon fiber frames complicates their disposal.
I found this study[1] on the topic from 2016 which claims that “the overall environmental impact of the bamboo bicycle frame is about 50% less than aluminium and about 30% less than steel bicycle frames in all impact categories, except Freshwater Aquatic Ecotoxicity and Terrestrial Ecotoxicity.”
Sounds like an improvement. I hope they can find a way to reduce the weight because 15kg is very heavy compared to my steel bike.
Thanks for the reseach!
15kg is very heavy compared to my steel bike.
Just to be sure, that’s for the entire bike with wheels and bars and fenders and cargo rack and lights and such, not just the frame. Adds up, I recently bought an aluminium frame bike with all the fixings that’s about 200g heavier and even that’s pretty good. Well, not for the pricepoint obviously, but then this is basically concept production
There some companies offering frame kits that consist of a set of lugs and (optionally) some prepared bamboo. I feel like that’s a better way from a longevity perspective than trying to tie or laminate things together, especially since the joints seem like the most obvious point of failure.
