First UK-built bamboo bike unveiled
Baku, October 8 (AZERTAC). The first UK-built mountain bike made out of bamboo has been unveiled at a major cycling exhibition.
Its designers, from Oxford Brookes University, say the natural material has the strength of steel but the responsiveness of carbon fibre.
They added that it was these properties rather than the plant's environmental credentials that prompted them to build a bamboo frame.
The bikes, built by Yorkshire-based Raw Bikes, will cost from Ј1,750.
Co-designer James Broughton, head of Brookes' Joining Technology Research Centre, said the idea of using bamboo started out as just a possible exercise for the centre's students to test alternative materials.
Dr Broughton said his colleague and co-designer, Shpend Gerguri, thought the giant grass could offer a different experience for a bike rider from standard frame materials.
"A particularly hard frame like carbon fibre, where the material is so stiff, means you feel everything from the road," he explained.
"This can be very advantageous; you make things stiff because then all the power you put in through your legs goes straight into turning the wheels round, it does not go into bending the frame.
The pair decided to test whether a bamboo-framed bike could do what it was supposed to: transmit power, and withstand what a mountain bike rider throws at it. With the help of their students, the two engineers took the idea from a drawing-board concept to a finished product.
The environmental merits of bamboo as a fast growing, carbon absorbing, sustainable construction material did offer an extra dimension, but it was not the main focus for the project.
The researchers identified a particular kind of bamboo from the estimated 1,500 species growing on the planet, as well as a certain grade of the harvested grass, that was best for the job. But they added that they were not at liberty to reveal the details because the information could be used by possible competitors. The bikes are being commercially produced by Yorkshire-based Raw. Managing director Rachel Hammond said she had been interested in producing bamboo bikes for a number of years. Ms Hammond explained it took three days to build one bike: "This is because there are various stages when you have to let various resins cure. If you started one on Monday, then you could probably finish it by Wednesday lunchtime."
While the material's strength and durability made it an attractive frame material, she acknowledged that the bamboo bike's starting pricetag of Ј1,750 meant it would not have mass market appeal. Dr Broughton said that seeing the bike develop from an idea to being sold in shops was "hugely satisfying".
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