Originally Posted By: Shannow
Why not ? a bike frame is a triangulated truss, which Bamboo does pretty well at.
I would expect the road feel to be very mushy. Frame material can really be felt very much on a road bike, even in materials that are slightly different (eg. steel, Ti, Al). The best ride quality IMO is steel, then titanium, then carbon, then aluminum. Aluminum definitely feels too stiff (with thin tires at least you feel every vibration on the road). Bamboo I would expect to have the opposite problem; it would feel bendy and mushy. Imagine quickly braking and turning, and the force that would put on the triangles and joints, and the deformation; imagine getting out of the seat and stepping hard into the crank, and the forces that would result on the frame, from the crank, chain, and handlebars. See
frame materials
Bamboo has a good good strenght to weight ratio but it flexes a great amount. Its use would be okay in a wing for example, where you don't care too much at all about slight deformations (bending of the wing), you just care that the it will bear the force without snapping. In a bike frame that's not true. You'll be able to feel this as a sloppy mushyness.
