Boo Bicycles’ Aluboo Budget Aluminum & Bamboo Bike Kickstarted

what? steel and ti not sustainable but aluminum is? wtf?

dampening: to make slightly wet
damping: dispersing energy in an oscillating system

I prefer bikes built by engineers…

(Some people woke up on Monday morning with a serious case of (deleted).

Chill guys – don’t like it or have doubts? Fine. Going off like a horrible c-unt or asking questions without sharing the knowledge that formed your perspective only makes you seem foolish.

Besides, have you ever ridden one from Boo? Maybe that answers a lot of the questions. Give them a call and ask where the nearest demo unit can be found and take it for a ride. Trash it on the internet afterward, if it deserves it.

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bamboo has ride characteristics now?

would you even be able to tell with such comically short sections of bamboo in the frame?

Alright, for the sake of argument, these are completely sustainable frames.

What about the rest of the bike guys, you know the parts that regularly wear out and thrown away?

I can honestly say In frames i have sold all but one of my frame I broke in a crash, so i would say that the frame is the most sustainable part, much like a good pair of wheels. In component on the other hand I have gone through everything and likely its several times more than the carbon foot print of my race bike.
I think you guys are focusing on the wrong part, frames are one of the most long lasting parts of the bike, if you are looking for sustainability you need to look at the rest of the bike.

As far as sustainable bikes go, a steel frame, with a belt drive, and $400-1000 is probably the most sustainable bike you can get right now because it has so few parts that could wear out quickly.

Jim: Sorry the whole bamboo thing is stupid. If you live in Realville you would realize this.

Said on a previous thread: I found a dessicated cow turd the other day and am thinking of making itointo some chainrings. Good day to you.
Please take the first train to Realville. You will be refreshed by its candid reflection of society at large.

@Jim: Huffy is worse than Rockhopper. That why is costs less. This poseur-mobile is worse than a normal bike twice cheaper.
99% of “green” and “sustainable” claims are utter bogus when you run ALL the numbers. And I bet the amount of farts from their smug owners will offset any advantage if there is any.

I’d love to own a Boo bike. Is a Boo bicycle more Earth-friendly than a normal bicycle? Probably not. But it looks cool. And if cool-looking bikes get more people into cycling, that’s a good thing.

Why does BOO need a kickstarter campaign anyway? They’re by no means a new idea, or a new company. In fact, they present themselves as well established in what they do. Their “Why Kickstarter” portion of their campaign is weakest point. If they’ve been able to build bikes successfully for so long now… is it just to get an additional cash injection so they could buy a few extra welders, mills, jigs? Seems outside the spirit of Kickstarter.

We use Vietnamese Tam Vong in our bikes, nicknamed ‘Iron Bamboo’ because it is widely regarded as some of the strongest, densest bamboo in the world. We use bamboo because it is a PERFORMANCE material––it is strong, light, stiff, and excellent at dampening high frequency vibrations.

To prove this point, James recently sent some of his bamboo tubes to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich to be tested versus steel, carbon, and aluminum. The tests performed on the samples included a 3-Point bending test, dynamic mechanical analysis, and oscillation testing.

The findings from these tests included the following:
1) the relative modulus of bamboo is better than the relative modulus of steel and aluminum
2) it is relative to the modulus of carbon with fiber orientation from 30-40 degrees
3) BAMBOO CULMS CLEARLY DAMP BETTER THAN STEEL, ALUMINUM, OR CARBON

Our bamboo had a quarter of the vibration of the carbon tubes in the testing. It also had a higher tensile strength than steel.

This gives our bamboo bikes excellent ride characteristics, as the dampening abilities of the bamboo make for a much smoother riding bike while the strength makes sure the bike remains stiff and handles excellently.

While our Boo race bikes contain more bamboo than Aluboos (Aluboo’s inserts extend as far as possible into the aluminum lugs though to maximize the effect of the bamboo), both bikes maintain these excellent ride qualities.

Bamboo is also renewable and one of the most effective means of sequestering carbon dioxide known to man, and aluminum is easy to recycle. We are not a carbon-neutral bike, but we are much more sustainable to produce than many bikes on the road today.

Aesthetically, these bikes, and this material, are beautiful. There’s not quite like it.

A now defunct company called Organic Bikes sold virtually the exact same frames, manufactured in Vietnam, a few years ago. It seems like these guys are trying to have another go at it. Probably even the same Vietnam manufacturer. The last of Organic’s aluminum – bamboo frames were offloaded on eBay at a substantial discount. I purchased one, a Caleb model, and built it up as a commuter for my wife. Quite frankly, I was pleasantly surprised at the build quality. The headset, BB, and dropouts were all in spec and the bamboo portions were nicely melded into the aluminum frame pieces. With a Ritchey carbon fork and a 105 groupset, it built into a unique ride. Always draws a nice comment when we’re out on our Sunday pedal.

> it is strong, light, stiff, and excellent at dampening high frequency vibrations.

How much does the road frame weigh?

If one were to follow the logic of most of these commenters, we would all be driving the same mass produced low budget cars, riding Walmart fixies, and NAHBS would not exist.

I am personally very excited for these bikes. The aluminum rear triangle should have the snappy power transmission of a full alu frame, but with the bamboo integrated into the main triangle, the ride should be much better across rough terrain, like a cross course.

If recall, one of the Boo designers crashed pretty hard in a crit last year, and the frame was not damaged at all while the components took quite a beating. I think that is a pretty good testament to the durability of these frames.

I’ve had enough articles on Velonews, Bikerumor, and other comment-able sites to know this was coming 🙂

I want to thank those above who have taken the time to write something reasonable, thoughtful, or simply rational.

I would like to point out that @InsightTree is absolutely right about aluminum versus steel/titanium mining. But I would also add that most aluminum has already been recycled many times over, and we’re not doing a whole lot of primary mining for everything anymore. It’s also much *MUCH* lighter weight, which reduces shipping emissions.

However, this is not a “green” bike. We would have to sell 100,000 of them to even bother thinking about “green”. We want to make something cool, unique, and functionally better. Sure it costs a little more, and sure it might have a lot of aluminum. But the bamboo does absorb high-frequency vibrations within the aluminum…hey, that sounds like @endorphin’s definitions! “dispersing energy in an oscillating system”

In the end, if you dig it, buy one on Kickstarter! If you don’t, then you don’t have to. But I personally am thankful there is an outlet to create and sell projects like this, and while Boo is established and proven, I don’t have anywhere near the funds to do a mass-produced run of less expensive bikes. So thank you, Kickstarter, most of all for giving us a chance to make the Aluboo a reality!

PSIsquared- How and why would I ever even think of gathering facts on such an obvious vanity project. I could care less. I know that the last 50 years of material science will not lead us to “bamboo” as a frame material or cow patties as chainrings, or steer horns as handlebars.
It has ZERO to do with the hugely subjective “ride quality”.That is the term Bicycling Magazine inserts when they are riding a piece of limp spaghetti but don’t want to tell you it sucks. So if you want to hang your entire argument on that , good for you.
Show all the data that says bamboo is superior to all the CF /Ti/Alu/Steel road frames we’ve been riding forever.Until then I will assume it makes a pretty decent greenie floor material in a trophy home.Not much else.

@CJ: I know that the last 50 years of material science will not lead us to goose down as an insulating material… oh wait.

$945 for a complete single speed is not that expensive. A custom steel single speed goes for higher than that on average. Don’t even get started on what CF or Ti would go for.