Wood Bike Building Zen with Boo Bikes

Once you’ve shortened the length of bamboo at any segment to only a few inches — what’s the point? It’s probably even detrimental to the ride quality (and certainly to overall weight).

Sustainability should never be a talking point of these bikes; they’re just for grabbing attention. Please show me a thorough analysis of the overall embodied energy in one of these frames compared to any other.

Chances are, the carbon and bamboo bikes use even more carbon than your typical carbon bike. That’s kinda the only safe way to combine carbon with another material. You’ve gotta overbuild where they connect. As stated before, the parts that are now bamboo would barely have much carbon anyway. It’s only admirable if it’s smart. Otherwise it’s actually taking steps back. I’d much prefer to see the industry make cleaner carbon or stretch flax to it’s limits

I can’t wait until this metaphysical nonsense runs its course. Claiming these bikes represent “sustainability” is absurd. As others above have noted, the lugs, carbon reinforcements, etc. needed to keep these things together cost more environmentally that a bike made of conventional materials.

It like ethanol in gasoline, it makes the “environmentally aware” feel good about themselves but is truly more wasteful.

I second Dave. If one wants a sustainable bike, get a steel one and take care of it for a long, long time.
Outside that, these may be great frames. Who knows. I’ve never ridden one. I do have respect in that I see a lot of Boo employees ripping it up on local singletrack in the frontrange of CO on their Boo frames (or Boo requires all buyers to ride with Boo kit…)

@Veganpotter “Chances are, the carbon and bamboo bikes use even more carbon than your typical carbon bike.”

Having built one, it’s shy of two pounds of carbon for a very sturdy result. Many carbon frames hover in the 3 lbs range +/- a few ounces. I do not know of many sub-2-pound carbon frames.

I’m only half interested in the sustainability stuff (some of it is true, some ehhh)… that said, some of you in here appear to dislike fun. I’m going to get back to building some bamboo frames just to irritate you by their mere existence.

Sevo, one of the things about the internet – you don’t know who you’re talking to. Best not to make assumptions about them. I, for one, have ridden several and (briefly) owned bamboo bikes, both low and high end (including boo). I admit its been a few years and maybe things have changed, but I gave them a chance… I’m with veganpotter, while better than expected, overall they don’t hold a candle to a high end metal bike (pick your material!) or even a midrange carbon bike.

This is actually a pretty “positive” set of comments, considering how these sections usually go 🙂 Thanks!

Everyone: we do NOT purport to be sustainable. That’s not why we use bamboo. My background is mechanical engineering and professional road racing. These experiences shape what I look for in a bike: stiff, responsive, incredible efficiency, and brilliant ride quality with surefooted handling.

I’ve never found another frame material or combination of materials that rivals bamboo and carbon fiber in the optimal mixture of these traits. You can never have your cake and eat it too, everything is simply an optimization problem. I personally believe we make the best optimization for what most people love using their bikes for: long, hard, adventurous riding.

Our bike isn’t the stiffest, the lightest, the most responsive, the most durable, the best ride quality, the best handling, or the best looking. I actually think having a bike that is “best” at something is not optimal, because of what you give up in the other categories. If you want the “best” car, you wouldn’t get a top fuel dragster, or a low rider, or a rock crawler. But those vehicles would actually be the “best” for a specific task. Instead, you’d get the best optimization of those traits you value in a car.

So PLEASE don’t think we’re all about sustainability. It’s not that we don’t care–we believe strongly in making durable products that last many years so you don’t have to worry too much about the initial impact of production because it’s amortized over a longer time scale. But we don’t purport to somehow be making something that will change the world with its sustainability. We freaking drive an old school bus thousands of miles a year and air ship a majority of our frames!

We use bamboo because it freaking rocks. I’m guessing many commenters haven’t ridden one. Please do. We’re located at 1750 Laporte Avenue in Fort Collins, Colorado. Reach us at (970) 444.2228 and we’ll get you setup. THEN you can hate the bikes, but I doubt you will 🙂

The Boo a rode was crafted well but from 0-10, at most, any of the main things I look for in a bike’s performance would score anywhere from 5-7 for the Boo outside of cool factor. Ti, steel and carbon bikes can be made with nothing worse than a 7 and early hit a 9-10 on some things. Even some new aluminum bikes rock. 5-7s don’t rock, they eh…