500watt and 13ah battery. This build was fun and is almost all new parts. But the bit I liked the best is that it is our first bamboo bike build. I think the frame is beautiful and will be good fun riding it off-road.
Bamboo has a Higher Specific Compressive Strength (capacity to carry loads) than wood, brick or concrete & it has a Specific Tensile Strength (capacity to withstand tension) equal to Steel. Bamboo has so much potential as a sustainable environmentally friendly alternative to many other materials. The Kwame Nkrumah University of science & Technology, in Ghana, has a Sustainable Building program for Civil Engineering Students & is experimenting with Bamboo as a viable building materials. Instead of Iron rods, this renewable material can be used in the construction of Lintels for story buildings & in place of Iron rods in matting for foundations & concrete rigidity.
Bamboo is an evergreen perennial plant of the Grass Family. It is one of the fastest growing plants in the world. Certain species of bamboo grow up to 30ft each day (this is a growth rate of 4 cm an hour).
Generally bamboo shoots and reaches its full height in a single growing season of 3 to 4 months, growing straight up with no branching until the full height is reached.
The next growing season sees branching out at the nodes and leaves are produced. During this second year the pulpy core of the bamboo pole hardens & strengthens, & during the third year of growth the pole becomes fully mature and suitably hard as a construction material.
So after 3 years you have bamboo to harvest, and it’s renewable, when you harvest it regrows!
More bikes and information about them is available from Roots Bamboo Bikes and we convert bikes to electric over at Electric Bikes Cornwall.
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