Bamboo Bike – fitting out
You might want to keep this old Bamboo Bicycle Club guide for reference. It contains details of the sizing of the tubes etc: http://bamboobicycleclub.org/Downloads/WORKMANSHIP%20GUIDE.pdf
Now my frame was finished, I started the process of fitting it out. I was canibalising a ten-year-old Orbea Enol (ebay £102).
Front derailleur hanging
I used a front derailleur (the bike has two cogs on the front). I bought a 34mm hanger/braze-on for £6 – however it was much too small in diameter for the seat-post. I got round this by sawing half-way round the arms of the hanger and then bent the stumpy arms to make sure they were a snug fit round the circumference of the seat post (although, of course, this only goes about half way round the seatpost as it isn’t now long enough to go all the way round).
I then drilled three holes in the hanger and roughed up the rear of the metal with the green dremel grinding bit. I then used epoxy glue to glue (and screw) the hanger to the seat post (taking care to position it correctly). I made the holes in the seatpost for the screws by hand with a bradawl. I practised this by doing a dry run of the hole-making on an off-cut of bamboo. It was surprisingly strong. Remember to remove the waxy bamboo finish from the area of the braze-on before sticking it on. Take take care to ensure the derailleur positioning will be just right.
Steering
The steering tube in the kit is a 1 1/8 inch standard threadless tube. You will need to fit a headset on this – I would recommend buying the unit and taking it to the Local Bike Shop to fit. Perhaps you could do this yourself with some bits of wood and a hammer but I read some scare stories about getting this wrong. I thought “why risk your frame for a £15 job?”.
You need a 1 1/8 thread-less external cups Lo-profile headset. I went for a M Part In-Line Lo-Profile Threadless Headset.
Note: If getting the LBS to fit this, also take along your fork- they can also fit the bearing run on the fork at the same time – saving you an awkward job. Foolishly, I didn't do this and found I needed to replace the bearing race on the Orbea fork with the one that came with the headset. This was new to me – I carefully used a chisel to start to prise up the race from the fork. Take care not to dig into the metal of the fork with the chisel - but once the race starts to rise, it can easily be worked up with an old screwdriver. This was quite an easy task. The harder part was putting the new race on the fork.The bearing race is pretty snug at the base of the fork and it is easy to damage it (hence the LBS have proper tools). I managed to fit it by using the old Orbea heaset – I put the fork into the Orbea steering tube and hammered the fork in (using a piece of wood to receive the hammer blows). Slowly (I mean slowly), the race worked its way onto the fork.
Also, before taking the frame and fork to the LBS, make sure the hemp around the top of the tube is flat and that no hemp is raised above the top of the metal tube (the headset gets pushed into the top of the tube).
At this point I realised that I needed some Steering Spacers (you might also need some – they are cheap and you might want to get some in advance). Remember it’s standard 1 1/8 inch fork. I also needed a new steering stem (the one on the Orbea was at the wrong angle). The Bamboo Bike Club seem to suggest a 90mm stem long with a 7 degree rise, so I went for that. If you also need to change the stem, you need to make sure the stem order fits the handlebar – I had to use some maths here to find the right size. I wrapped some tape round the handlebar and then unwrapped it to work out the circumference of the tube. I then divided that figure by 3.142 (pi) to get the diameter of the handlebar. Handlebar sizes all seem to be given in diameters rather than the circumference.
Fitting the rear brake
My next problem was the rear brake. I positioned the brake (using the wheel and the old frame to work out exactly how high the bolt hole needed to be above the top of the tyre. I had a few problems. One problem was that the bolt on the brake was much shorter than the thickness of the bamboo. Perhaps there is a way to change the bolt length on the brake, or perhaps I could have used an old front-brake (on older bikes they have longer bolts). Anyway, I have solved the problem for now by drilling the hole exactly the same diameter as the bolt. I then screwed in the brake, using the thread of the bolt to carve a thread into the hemp and bamboo. This seems to have worked, although I don’t have a nut on the brake bolt at the moment. The direction of travel of the wheel means that the brake is always pushing against the frame, so it’s not going to suddenly spring out. I think I am OK for now (I might just glue the bolt in place if I get any issues).
The other issue I had was that the hole I drilled for the brake bolt wasn’t exactly straight. Consequently, the left-side brake block was tucked inside the frame – it wouldn’t spring back. I solved this problem by buying some shorter old-style brake blocks and hack-sawing a few millimetres from the tip of the block. This works perfectly and my rear brake functions very well.
Seat Post
I had problems with the seat post slipping. This turned out to be due to the clamp on the canabalised bike being the wrong size. According to the “finishing guide” you need a 27.2mm seat post and the seat clamp needs to be 28.6mm. The seat post on my Orbea was 27.2 mm, but the clamp was too big. I ordered a 28.6mm clamp and some Weldtite tft carbon fibre gripper paste from ebay. That’s all working fine now.
Steering
The steering tube in the kit is a 1 1/8 inch standard threadless tube. You will need to fit a headset on this – I would recommend buying the unit and taking it to the Local Bike Shop to fit. Perhaps you could do this yourself with some bits of wood and a hammer but I read some scare stories about getting this wrong. I thought “why risk your frame for a £15 job?”.
You need a 1 1/8 thread-less external cups Lo-profile headset. I went for a M Part In-Line Lo-Profile Threadless Headset.
Note: If getting the LBS to fit this, also take along your fork- they can also fit the bearing run on the fork at the same time – saving you an awkward job. Foolishly, I didn't do this and found I needed to replace the bearing race on the Orbea fork with the one that came with the headset. This was new to me – I carefully used a chisel to start to prise up the race from the fork. Take care not to dig into the metal of the fork with the chisel - but once the race starts to rise, it can easily be worked up with an old screwdriver. This was quite an easy task. The harder part was putting the new race on the fork.The bearing race is pretty snug at the base of the fork and it is easy to damage it (hence the LBS have proper tools). I managed to fit it by using the old Orbea heaset – I put the fork into the Orbea steering tube and hammered the fork in (using a piece of wood to receive the hammer blows). Slowly (I mean slowly), the race worked its way onto the fork.
Also, before taking the frame and fork to the LBS, make sure the hemp around the top of the tube is flat and that no hemp is raised above the top of the metal tube (the headset gets pushed into the top of the tube).
Fitting the rear brake
My next problem was the rear brake. I positioned the brake (using the wheel and the old frame to work out exactly how high the bolt hole needed to be above the top of the tyre. I had a few problems. One problem was that the bolt on the brake was much shorter than the thickness of the bamboo. Perhaps there is a way to change the bolt length on the brake, or perhaps I could have used an old front-brake (on older bikes they have longer bolts). Anyway, I have solved the problem for now by drilling the hole exactly the same diameter as the bolt. I then screwed in the brake, using the thread of the bolt to carve a thread into the hemp and bamboo. This seems to have worked, although I don’t have a nut on the brake bolt at the moment. The direction of travel of the wheel means that the brake is always pushing against the frame, so it’s not going to suddenly spring out. I think I am OK for now (I might just glue the bolt in place if I get any issues).
The other issue I had was that the hole I drilled for the brake bolt wasn’t exactly straight. Consequently, the left-side brake block was tucked inside the frame – it wouldn’t spring back. I solved this problem by buying some shorter old-style brake blocks and hack-sawing a few millimetres from the tip of the block. This works perfectly and my rear brake functions very well.
Seat Post
I had problems with the seat post slipping. This turned out to be due to the clamp on the canabalised bike being the wrong size. According to the “finishing guide” you need a 27.2mm seat post and the seat clamp needs to be 28.6mm. The seat post on my Orbea was 27.2 mm, but the clamp was too big. I ordered a 28.6mm clamp and some Weldtite tft carbon fibre gripper paste from ebay. That’s all working fine now.
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