A Bamboo-Bike for Cryptos - Part Two: The Fork
I have made some nice progress on my bamboo fixie, I posted about previously. I'm now at the point where all the bamboo parts are finished, so here I want to share some pictures about the building process. Also, since some of you expressed an interest in a bike with a bamboo frame, I have decided to make you a great offer. But first, let's see the work:
More of the Same: Gluing and Sanding
The fork consists of a thick piece of bamboo cut in half. Obviously, the steerer tube has to be metal, so it's the crown where it has to be attached to the bamboo, using some more carbon fiber with epoxy resin.
The joined pieces are covered in more carbon, then wrapped in long strands of the same stuff. This will give the crown the strength that the bamboo sliders have.
On the lower end of the fork the process is similar: The dropouts are steel, so they are fitted precisely into the sliders, where they are glued in with ... you guessed it: carbon fiber saturated with epoxy resin.
Then the whole thing is wrapped in long strands of carbon fiber. A day later all these joints will have hardened, leaving the only remaining work to the sandpaper.
Oh, the joy of sanding! This time I managed to do a much better job wrapping the carbon fiber tight, so there were hardly any air pockets left. Still, a nice appearance required some good sanding!
Once everything looked nice and smooth, I gave it a generous coating with bee's wax, and got working on the handlebar.
Since the objective is to build a minimalist urban fixie, I wanted the handlebar to be as short as possible. But since there is no point having it shorter than the width of my shoulders, I cut it at 45 cm (17.7 inches). Also, it needed to have the right thickness for a pair of grips. To attach it to a stem, the middle needed to be made thicker, with yet more carbon fiber!
And that's it! All the parts that can be bamboo are done. A beautiful bamboo frame, a bamboo fork, and a bamboo handlebar! All the other parts are components you'd use for bikes with any other frames. Which also means, this would be the perfect time to ship it around the world!
Do You Want to Buy This Bamboo Frame-Set?
Since some of you have expressed interest in my bamboo bike (I'm thinking about you, @dromihete and @vibeof100monkeys, but anyone is welcome to this deal I'm offering) so now you have the chance to buy these three bamboo parts. And since we're on a crypto blockchain here, why would I even consider taking fiat for it? And since I'm a fan of flat-rates and nice round numbers, I offer you everything for only
0.1 BTC or its Equivalent!
That means, for a tenth of a Bitcoin you'll get:
- The frame, the fork, and handlebar
- A pair of grips, a stem, a headset, and five spacers
- A list of recommended components for a fixed gear bike
- Shipping anywhere in the world included!
So that means, you can pay me in BTC, or if you prefer in any of the following cryptos at their current transaction rate: STEEM, ETH, LTC, DASH. And sure, if you really want to use fiat, I also have a paypal. Right now it should be around $700 USD. Also, should you have anything else to offer, I'm always happy to hear it!
To Buy or Not To Buy? Now or Later?
What happens if I sell the frame I've built? Well, I just might go back and start building a new one... Likewise, if no-one is interested, I'm going to continue building the wheels, adding all the other components, and finishing my bike. I may attempt to sell it again, but
- the bike will be heavier and more voluminous, making shipping more expensive
- the components will have their own values, adding more to the final price
- the components may not be the ones YOU like.
In any case, if nobody wants to buy it, I'll ride it myself and be happy. But if you want a kick-ass bamboo bike, for a kick-ass price, now is the time to buy! The offer will never be this good again.
Please check out these great communities I'm contributing to:
#ecotrain | What is EcoTrain | Discord Community
#tribesteemup |The 8 Pillars of @TribeSteemUp
#team-mexico | Discord Community
#cyclefeed | Introducing CycleFeed | Discord Community
That's a great price I have to say. Currently having just moved and being stung but the taxman charging me double but not seeing a fault this i can't afford currently. Can't afford much. But I will get saving and hopefully get one in the future 💯🐒
Well, thanks for stopping by! And no worries, I understand the pressure from the taxman (it's not a man, btw but an evil cyborg) though I'm happy you like the price.
Would you want to share this post though, and tell your friends about it? Maybe some of the people you know, who are into bikes and/or cryptos would be interested? I appreciate it a lot!
Right you are 💯🐒
Thanks for resteeming it!
!BEER
View or trade
BEER.Hey @vibeof100monkeys, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @stortebeker for you. Enjoy it!Wow brother, this bike looks amazing!!! Super professional looking. I am impressed and happy that you're taking crypto for it.
Thanks it gave me some ideas to work with carbon fiber one day... I don't know on what but it looks like a medium I'd enjoy.
Resteeming for sure... maybe there's a fixie fan in my followers 😁
It is kinda pleasant to work with, especially if you think glue and hair go well together! At first I felt a bit reluctant, as it brought to surface a somewhat traumatic childhood experience involving liquid glue and my sisters long flowing hair... a huge mess that eventually only a pair of scissors could resolve.
Once I've managed to get past that, it was nice to notice how it didn't include any sharp and pointy things trying to penetrate your skin, there was no danger of getting singed or cut, and if you removed too much you could always add back on to it. Plus there is the strength factor! I don't know how high the material costs are, though. I'll ask the guys at the shop about it.
Oh no... sounds like it was traumatic!!! How much of her hair had to be cut down?
What a crazy story, I can only imagine the chaos and panic that day!
Thanks for sharing and it's nice to know you can add more if you sanded too much off
Well, fortunately I didn't have to cut off too much. However, the part that I did cut off went up pretty far, and eventually the hairdresser had to adjust it for all her hair to look relatively uniform. So imagine a 4-year old (I was six) with full, thick, wavy hair all the way down to her butt, turn into a bob-headed little pixie. The funniest thing was, neither me or her really bothered at first... the traumatizing part only started when we saw our parents' reaction. Okay, they were the ones really traumatized, giving both of us the feeling that we had to be too.
Oh man... I bet she still gives you shit about it, but yeah the parents' reaction is so crucial to how we learn emotion. Somehow we were able to control our panic every time our little guy gell down for example and now he only cries when he really really gets hurt.
She does, in fact she has been giving me shit ever since, but all in good fun. Though as a teenager she once went for the Annie Lennox blank-shaven look for a while, so I have something to remind her of whenever she brings it up.
Though putting myself in my parents' shoes, I can understand their shock: seeing the whole room covered in hair and glue,literally everywhere, and the two kids inmidst of it, proudly smiling that they managed to get (almost) all the glue out of little sister's hair. I have to give them credit for keeping control! I'm sure it wasn't easy.
Bamboo is awesome for bikes - super flexible and super light. This post is so hipster it hurts. Love your work! xx
Hahaha, precisely my intention! I'm even thinking about giving the bike a fitting name. Something like manbun undercut maybe. But a bike name has to materialize as I'm putting it together, so nothing certain yet.
Thank you for using the #build-it tag. This post has been manually rewarded with BUILD tokens in the form of an upvote with our @build-it.curator account. You can buy, stake, and exchange our "BUILD" tokens for steem on steem engine and Steem Leo's exchange
Build-it is a central hub for DIY and How-To projects. It's an opportunity to find and share the latest in DIY, and How-To tutorials. The recommended tags required when creating a DIY article are #diy, #build-it. #how-to, or #doityourself.
Chat with us on our discord and telegram channels Discord, Telegram. Are we adding value ? your witness vote will be appreciated! Click here to vote
Awesome! Much appreciated!