I too think they are the real forefathers of the "lightweights" we love. When the Oakland art museum had the Pryor Dodge collection last year that had one of the bamboo bikes and a couple of Old Hickorys too. They were really cool and serious attempts as changing the way people thought about bicycle materials. In the minds of the designers wood was the ultimate in materials since it was plentiful, easy to work with, and cheap. Sure they were flexable as all get out, but they were lighter than most steel frames at the time. These are still things we like to see in design changes and these three factors are the reasons I love steel frames. Sure they didn't work out in the end but you can't fault them for trying. enjoy, Brandon"monkeyman"Ives
"Nobody can do everything, but if everybody did something everything would get done." Gil Scott-Heron
On Mon, 23 Apr 2001, Jerry & Liz Moos wrote:
> The banner on the CR site says "1900 - 1980", so if they were available at the
> turn of the last century, they are on-topic, just as are non-steel Speedwells,
> Teledynes, ALANs and Vituses made in the 70's. Provided they were lightweights of
> course, and bamboo is pretty light.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
>
> Chuck Schmidt wrote:
>
> > Jerry Moos wrote:
> > >
> > > (snip)I would think one could build a
> > > perfectly good bike frame from bamboo, if someone could work out how to join
> > > the tubes, and even that might be no problem for, say, a skilled
> > > cabinentmaker. I think maybe bamboo-framed bikes have been made in Asia
> > > before WWII
> >
> > They were commercialy available at the turn of the last century. And I
> > think this is a vaguely off topic for classicrendezvous, Jerry.
> >
> > Chuck Schmidt
> > South Pasadena, California
> > beautiful mid-80s