# Bambooni: Challenge to create a Bamboo Unicycle
**URL:** https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025
**Category:** General
**Created:** [October 6, 2014, 10:52am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025 "2014-10-06T10:52:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Jaime\_Yann](https://unicyclist.com/u/Jaime_Yann)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2014, 1:06am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/21 "2014-10-08T01:06:35Z")
> [@Killian](#):
>
> I think R&D in the unicycle world could be better spent elsewhere (36er wheels, Schlumpf options, etc.)
This is what I have thought up and something I really think could improve unicycling outside of the pure technical realm through sustainable development, but other challenges in the future if there are other cool ideas the community is willing to support, such as 36er wheels or schlumpf options.
> [@tholub](#):
>
> A “bamboo” uni can be made very stiff, in the same way that Calfee makes its bamboo bikes; by turning it into a composite. At that point it basically behaves like carbon fiber, and you can use carbon fiber for the joints. It’d certainly be cool. Not so cool that I’ll fund someone else’s commercial R&D, though.
This wouldn’t be funding someone’s commercial R&D, since the reward would be released once the documentation to study, modify, make or distribute it is released in Open Licence. This R&D would be everyone’s, with the benefit of rewarding the person who made it possible and shared it with others.
> [@LanceB](#):
>
> Hey, maybe this is how we can get a purpose-built 32" frame! Hello Jaime Yann – if you’re looking for a void to fill, there you are.
Thanks LanceB. One thing doesn’t exclude the other. The idea is to get a working prototype of a bamboo unicycle capable of taking the kind of abuse we put into flat and street riding. I believe the kind of technology developped through the challenge should be transposable to other kinds of wheels and riding, such as freestyle, long distance, muni or trials, even if it is not completely straighforward.
The fact that it shall be in Open Source will allow for anyone, manufacturers or tinkerers, to adapt it to his or her needs, even a 32’’ frame 😉
> [@johnfoss](#):
>
> I encourage experimentation with different materials. but the nature of bamboo, which makes it so useful for many things, is probably not the best material to use for a uni frame. However the same thing is true for bikes, but there are bamboo bikes out there. Why not unis?
+1
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### Author:  [@Jaime\_Yann](https://unicyclist.com/u/Jaime_Yann)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2014, 1:42am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/22 "2014-10-08T01:42:09Z")
> [@blueharmony](#):
>
> I don’t see any bamboo BMX or Trials bikes, could be I’m not looking hard enough. Makes me wonder about Muni on bamboo, also street, trials, flat…
Well, it’s not because it hasn’t been made before it’s not doable. But if we don’t try, we can be sure we won’t be able to make it.
And who know, if we pull it off, maybe we can enable a new generation of Bamboo BMX and Trial bikes, in the same way BMX and Trial bikes enabled Trial and Street Unicycles.
As the saying goes and all unicyclist understand: The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer
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### Author:  [@tholub](https://unicyclist.com/u/tholub)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2014, 2:08pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/23 "2014-10-08T14:08:00Z")
> [@Jaime Yann](#):
>
> This wouldn’t be funding someone’s commercial R&D, since the reward would be released once the documentation to study, modify, make or distribute it is released in Open Licence. This R&D would be everyone’s, with the benefit of rewarding the person who made it possible and shared it with others.
As with most “open-source” projects, the idea that the information being public is the same as the product being public is fatuous. If someone develops a plan for a bamboo composite unicycle, I’ll have access to it only if I pay a manufacturer to build the thing. I have no more ability to manufacture a useful bamboo unicycle than I do to create a useful code fork of MySQL.
---
### Author:  [@OneTrackMind](https://unicyclist.com/u/OneTrackMind)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2014, 3:02pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/24 "2014-10-08T15:02:53Z")
The next stage would be a bigger challenge. The bamboo rim. 🙄
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### Author:  [@muni123](https://unicyclist.com/u/muni123)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/25 "2014-10-08T16:01:44Z")
> [@Killian](#):
>
> Yeah, I’ve heard of Roger’s frames and I think I remember a Koxx frame somewhere. Still, they aren’t common place like they are with bikes.
Koxx made a small batch of flat/trials/street frames just before they went under. I tried one at unicon.
---
### Author:  [@paxuni](https://unicyclist.com/u/paxuni)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/26 "2014-10-08T22:00:16Z")
> [@OneTrackMind](#):
>
> The next stage would be a bigger challenge. The bamboo rim. 🙄
Cane rims were used quite often on track bikes back in the sixties. At that time it was a light material option compared to what else was available.
Why track? They were tough to keep true if they got wet. Hence not an all purpose everyday choice.
I have a bamboo grove near my house. The frme iis a tempting Winter diversion.
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### Author:  [@johnfoss](https://unicyclist.com/u/johnfoss)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2014, 10:12pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/27 "2014-10-08T22:12:45Z")
> [@paxuni](#):
>
> Why track? They were tough to keep true if they got wet. Hence not an all purpose everyday choice.
Interesting. I remember seeing old Artistic bikes and Cycleball (Radball) bikes with wooden rims. Those are both sports that are indoor-based.
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### Author:  [@OneTrackMind](https://unicyclist.com/u/OneTrackMind)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2014, 11:50pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/28 "2014-10-08T23:50:42Z")
How about an all wooden uni? What would the other parts be made of?
Bearings were made of wood until quite recently.
Spokes would be a problem.
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### Author:  [@Jaime\_Yann](https://unicyclist.com/u/Jaime_Yann)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2014, 3:06am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/29 "2014-10-09T03:06:53Z")
> [@tholub](#):
>
> As with most “open-source” projects, the idea that the information being public is the same as the product being public is fatuous. If someone develops a plan for a bamboo composite unicycle, I’ll have access to it only if I pay a manufacturer to build the thing. I have no more ability to manufacture a useful bamboo unicycle than I do to create a useful code fork of MySQL.
You are totally right. Actually this is also a critique that is done to Tesla. They have “open sourced” their patents, but they are farely safe since nobody has billions of dollars to replicate their factories and copy their stuff.
Besides performance criteria (strenght, weight, rigidity…) we are setting up some production criteria. The cost of materials and renting of the tools must be under 500 Euros, and the tools must be regular ones or easy to rent.
> [@muni123](#):
>
> Koxx made a small batch of flat/trials/street frames just before they went under. I tried one at unicon.
Is there any picture?🙂
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### Author:  [@jaco\_flans](https://unicyclist.com/u/jaco_flans)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2014, 7:30am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/30 "2014-10-09T07:30:10Z")
> [@Jaime Yann](#):
>
> Is there any picture?🙂
Here you go!
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### Author:  [@LanceB](https://unicyclist.com/u/LanceB)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2014, 8:05am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/31 "2014-10-09T08:05:59Z")
> [@jaco\_flans](#):
>
> Here you go!
>
> [http://www.al4bikes.com/data/productos/karbone.jpg](http://www.al4bikes.com/data/productos/karbone.jpg)
Man, that is one sexy unicycle frame!
It occurs to me that while the properties of bamboo would seem to indicate that road riding would be the best application for it, its inherent flexibility may work against it as the frame legs get longer (as with the 36’r frame). Perhaps it would work best to shoot for a 24" or 26" frame, but design it specifically with a Schlumpf hub in mind. (Or jackshaft gears, whatever.) Just a thought.
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### Author:  [@LargeEddie](https://unicyclist.com/u/LargeEddie)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2014, 3:00pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/32 "2014-10-10T15:00:53Z")
Where do you get this kind of bamboo?
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### Author:  [@muni123](https://unicyclist.com/u/muni123)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2014, 10:44pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/33 "2014-10-10T22:44:46Z")
As far as I know there is only one type of bamboo. Probably wrong though.
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### Author:  [@LargeEddie](https://unicyclist.com/u/LargeEddie)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2014, 1:49pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/34 "2014-10-11T13:49:27Z")
This kind would be the easiest to get for me but I doubt that it has satisfactory mechanical properties:
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### Author:  [@newob](https://unicyclist.com/u/newob)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/35 "2014-10-11T16:01:29Z")
> [@muni123](#):
>
> As far as I know there is only one type of bamboo. Probably wrong though.
🙂 Fun Facts about bamboo! 🙂
Bamboo is not a wood, but a sub-family of the Grasses family.
There are over 600 genera of bamboo and approx 10,000 species.
Bamboo has a unique internal structure; depending on the species, it can range from very flimsy to very, very strong: “The high tensile longitudinal fibres of a bamboo culm are set in a softer matrix and are structurally very similar to carbon fibre. On a strength to weight basis, bamboo culms are stronger than steel.” (Bell, 19.)
(I’ve propogated over a dozen species of bamboo and built many things with it, but no unicycles. Yet.)
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### Author:  [@jtrops](https://unicyclist.com/u/jtrops)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2014, 4:36pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/36 "2014-10-11T16:36:13Z")
> [@newob](#):
>
> 🙂 Fun Facts about bamboo! 🙂
>
> Bamboo is not a wood, but a sub-family of the Grasses family.
>
> There are over 600 genera of bamboo and approx 10,000 species.
>
> Bamboo has a unique internal structure; depending on the species, it can range from very flimsy to very, very strong: “The high tensile longitudinal fibres of a bamboo culm are set in a softer matrix and are structurally very similar to carbon fibre. On a strength to weight basis, bamboo culms are stronger than steel.” (Bell, 19.)
This is all true, but the comparison to CF is a bit misleading. In all of the reading I’ve done on Bamboo for fishing rods it is most comparable to Fibreglass in terms of modulus. And this is the highest modulus bamboo that’s available. It is possible that someone has genetically engineered bamboo to have a higher modulus, but I haven’t heard of it.
So, in the end I think the design will be critical to gaining the stiffness needed on a uni. I liked the photo of the bike that was made with split bamboo tubes much like a fly rod. I think that method could pay off. What about a composite with split bamboo and CF stringers in the joints between the bamboo splits? That would look cool too!
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### Author:  [@OneTrackMind](https://unicyclist.com/u/OneTrackMind)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2014, 12:23am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/37 "2014-10-12T00:23:29Z")
We need the genetic engineers to make it grow already forked. 😉
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### Author:  [@jtrops](https://unicyclist.com/u/jtrops)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2014, 6:39am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/38 "2014-10-12T06:39:02Z")
> [@OneTrackMind](#):
>
> We need the genetic engineers to make it grow already forked. 😉
You can train it around a form as it grows. That would be a slick way to make a frame.
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### Author:  [@Juni](https://unicyclist.com/u/Juni)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2014, 7:18am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/39 "2014-10-12T07:18:42Z")
I’m not sure if this sounds dumb, I’m half asleep after a long day at work, but how about bamboo plywood? I’m not clued up on woodwork, but I’m sure I remember seeing, or reading something about plywood being strong?
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### Author:  [@muni123](https://unicyclist.com/u/muni123)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2014, 8:25am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/bambooni-challenge-to-create-a-bamboo-unicycle/123025/40 "2014-10-12T08:25:09Z")
I’ve got bamboo plywood on my cupboards at my house.
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