Boo Bicycles’ Glissando commuter concept bike certainly lived up to the pre-show hype. They teased it in our Road to NAHBS interview and again with a descriptive post that laid out the details.
The titanium and bamboo urban commuter bike used a split top tube made of the fast growing wood grass. Right now it’s a pure concept bike that was made in their Colorado shop.
Behind it is the first bamboo fat bike they’ve done. It uses the same carbon over bamboo tube-to-tube mitered construction. The insides of the shoots are removed to save weight, using the denser, stronger fibers on the outside. So, what you see as carbon fiber is really just overwrapped bamboo. Price for a frameset, which is full custom, is about $3,800.
Check out build photos and closeup detail shots plus lots more below…
Gorgeous. Just gorgeous.
It’s running VP’s new minimal titanium platform pedals, but word is Boo has to return them at the end of the show! Note the titanium truss fork on the fat bike.
On the fat bike, notice how the complete bike looks like the stays are bamboo only up to the curve, where it becomes carbon. In reality, the stays (and all the other tubes, except the seat tube on some bikes) are full length bamboo.
Each tube is mitered, then overwrapped with carbon fiber.
The bigger news is the mainstream-ification of bamboo by adding it to aluminum lugs and frame sections. The result is the AluBOO, something they can offer for under $1,000 as a fixie and about $2,000 for an Alfine 8 build. The SRAM Apex bike above should hit around $1,800 to $1,900.
The actual bike will have a complete alloy rear triangle, not the bamboo seatstay like on the blue bike. It’ll be only offered in four stock sizes, but it’ll have custom options by using different dropouts that allow for fixed, belt, disc, caliper, internal or standard or just anout any other common set up.
It’ll be launched by Kickstarter because they need to build a couple hundred frames per run, which is a tall order for a small company used to building only a few frames at a time.
The “Art Bike” MTB was made the week before the show and includes two types of rattan, bamboo, aluminum and carbon fiber.
Here are some other their other fun bikes:
This gravel-type road bike was built with a Rohloff hub, disc brakes and a very tall headtube. Like most everyone else at the show, Boo will build to the customer’s demands.
One of their sponsored riders raced in the Pro Men’s World Cup in Kentucky recently aboard the bike in the background to the left. Up front was a fresher (and cleaner) version.
