Bamboo bike by Ross Lovegrove and Biomega
Ross Lovegrove created this lovely high-end bamboo bicycle for Danish bike/design firm Biomega, founded by my pal Jens Martin Skibsted, and it will be available for purchase next month. If you're in Milan, you can see it in person at the Design Library next week. Even better, bring your own bike to the Library at 11am on Thursday (4/23) and go for a ride with Lovegrove and Skibsted! More on Biomega here, or if you'd like details on the bike, Martin says you can email the company directly.
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Calfee has been doing this for some time
http://www.calfeedesign.com/bamboo.htm
http://www.calfeedesign.com/BambooOverview.htm
I have spotted several bamboo bikes while pedaling around Portland, OR. I believe that they were built by these guys: http://bikeportland.org/2007/08/06/daedalus-working-on-a-bamboo-city-bike/
The frames were incredible, but out of my price range. For the same price I could almost buy a Bakfiets.
This is the coolest bike on the planet. Especially made or the coolest guy on the planet Max Rowby. Good as long as you don't ride it in the rain, probably better to hang it on the wall!
Good to see. Interesting to note how they avoided the carbon-fibre binding at the intersection points which Calfee chose to do for their bamboo bike.
I'd much rather ride a Calfee. First because it doesn't have a ridiculous proprietary shaft drivetrain, second because this just looks like a normal bike with bamboo-styled pipe insulators thrown on it. The Calfee is much more Swiss-family Robinson, which, let's face it, what you're looking for in a bamboo bike.
DO NOT WANT
@#3: i'd feel safer with a bonding method that wrapped around the outer tubing than some unseen and ultimately nefariously undisclosed method of bonding bamboo to metal.
If drive shafts were strong enough to not twist under torsional pressure, yet light enough for bicycle use, their use would have eclipsed that of the "greasy chain" and "finicky derailleurs" that chainless bike companies have trash talked.
basically, the only thing a chainless bike can safely claim is there's no chain. manufacturers love to include the "no derailleur, shift at a stand still" sale, but that's all about the rear, internally geared hub, not the shaft.
I've owned shaft bikes and in order to accommodate the shaft, the basic diamond frame has to be compromised.
Even with a steel frame chainless bike, the frame flexes more than it should and the shaft flexes and can even sheer. I'd hate to see what this bike would do on the street.
-you can have me hat or me bumbershoo but you better never bother with me old bamboo!
This makes me nervous in the same way that a carbon fiber bike does. When you crash a steel frame, it bends. Carbon tends to shatter and I'm thinking bamboo might as well. I may be a bit paranoid, but the last thing I want following a crash is a groin full of splinters.
Let's get real this is a metal, or perhaps carbon fiber bike with decorative bamboo tubing.
Can anyone seriously pretend you are saving the planet by riding a way overpriced bike that happens to have some pretty bamboo thrown in.
Really want to save the planet? Pick up a junker bike and give it a good overhaul. Keeping a junker out of the landfill does way more to save the planet then another decorative techyuppie gadget with a little bamboo thrown in to look "green."
"Pick up a junker bike and give it a good overhaul."
That's my plan exactly. :D
"Department Store Bike" is a common term to denote a crappily made bike that can be purchases at places like sears, walmart, target, costco, toys r us, etc.
They're toys and designed to be ridden only once a month for its year-long lifespan.
I have a feeling that "Ikea Bike" will be the new version.
Overly stylized, overly priced, and crappily made, this bike demonstrates the flatpack mindset turned to objects that shouldn't be so cheap.
Shame on you, boingboing.
It'd be better if you promoted the reuse of bicycles past within the community, rather than Sharper Image worthy rides.
Multi material frame too complicated to recycle.
too many compromises to be called a bamboo bike.
it's bike with some bamboo on it, nothing more.
@11
I totally agree with your sentiment. Although this bike might be quite sexy, but seems hardly practical. No passanger seat?! Also I wonder, can it withstand the rain for 20 years? My (t)rusty old Fongers bike can and still does. Yeah, 2nd hand, 40 euros (legal, I think).
Don't know about the drive shaft thingies. I've never driven one of em. They might actually be quite nice iff they don't break. Fixing them seems much harder. It being proprietary (who owns your bike?) and all that.
Bravo Petre on driveshaft bikes. The Biomega's a high-tech toy with bamboo trim. It uses weird materials, and proprietary technology that requires exacting tolerances. Little roadside bike shops and backcountry machine shops aren't going to be able to fix whatever goes wrong with it.
To really understand Biomega, go to their website, click on "accessories", and look at their one and only luggage carrier. It's every so refined-looking, it's not going to fail gradually, and the maximum load it can support is 12 kilograms. Here's Biomega on Biomega:
Riiiiight.You know what you need to transform the urban environment? Tough, adaptable, fixable bicycles you can use to commute and do your shopping. The Netherlands are great for that. They really understand bicycles, and they use them for everything. It's a bicycle-saturated environment.
Note: a photo essay on urban bicycling customs in the Netherlands. And also: a NYT multimedia essay on urban bicycling in the Netherlands.
And what do they ride? Sturdy, inelegant steel-tubing bicycles with fenders, chain guards, utilitarian paint jobs, big strong kickstands, humongous locking systems, and lots of carrying capacity. They'd roll their eyes at a statement like this one:
"Fine sports car" seems appropriate: expensive, looks cool, short on space for luggage and passengers, requires special parts, can only be fixed by certain mechanics, and functions more as a lifestyle accessory than as working transportation.I didn't even bother reading their site. Clicked on it and looked around, but since it all seems to be more like some design-hobby-site and not so much a business site, they neglected to post a price tag.
It's not very amusing to look at "luxury" bikes that are "redesigned from the ground up" by people without any bicycle history. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe they do a lot of cycling or bike collecting between designing motorized tie racks and quirky bottle openers.
A high price tag, small production run, and inefficient drive system do not a luxurious bike make.
Luxury cars echo some sort of classic design motif, they don't try to look like an FJ humped a Lamborgini, they go the classy route and use wood grain and leather and sweeping organic curves.
A luxury bike should look the same, (BIOMEGA, if you're reading this, you've got some homework to do)
Check out the bikes by Rivendell, Vanilla, and Columbine (or better yet, spend 5 minutes in a hand built bike convention). These are totally basic luxury bikes - a starting point. Then add to that the utility of a bakfiet or a randoneuring or touring bike. That'd be luxurious, something akin to a fine wine, not something out of a SkyMall ad.
Seriously, Petre, you've got to get a look at that luggage carrier. It's a hoot.
PS: Dear Biomega, mechanical disc brakes are hardly a luxury. A leather glove with which to reach down and grab the spinning tire would be slightly more effective and way more James Bond than a $10 brake set.
And did I mention that they have a proprietary bungee cord to wrap around the carrier? It's an immaculate white cord, with matte-finish silver endpieces.
Yikes, F, that rack is srsly ghetto.
Racks in torture chambers inspire more confidence in me than that thing.
Petre: what's wrong with disc brakes? I bought a bike with hydraulic disc brakes and I reckon they're brilliant. They work even when the wheel is wet, when rim brakes slip, and they seem more powerful.
XAXA: All of their bikes on the site come with mechanical disc brakes, which are considerably cheaper than hydraulic disc brakes. I think hydraulic disc brakes are wonderful (though the modulation is a tad touchy).
If you were to believe the hype on their site, you'd think they'd want to get uber l33t and fancy-schmancy and equip the bikes with hydraulic rim brakes, not disc brakes, and definitely not mechanical disc brakes.
"Hydraulic disc brakes" what an insanely inneficient use of weight on a bike. Cables good hydraulics a waste.
@23: omg ur rite. there's a difference of 30 grams. that's like the weight of half a hard boiled egg.
thank you for that insight.
I'm not a bike gearhead, but seriously though, aren't hydraulic brakes way more prone to failure and much harder to install, fix, maintain then a cable or rod-based system?
Why add such a complicated system, hydraulics, to a bike?
Hefty Dutch commuter bikes (mentioned in #15) meant to last and last and easy to repair if there is a problem certainly don't have 'em.