Bamboo Bike Frame

The idea is not new and already functionally proven since a long time: The majority of a bicycle frame can be built out of bamboo rods.

Together with a befriended engineer I developed the idea of constructing our own bamboo bike; stemming on the manifold instructions found on the web, some serious desk research about the topic and the combined power of an engineer's and a business administrator's mind.

Currently (January 2013) the project is on hold due to time restrictions. However the first steps look promising. Probably I will catch up with building the first frame in the second half of February 2013...we will see.

Update (February 2013): The frame jig, constructed out of ITEM alloy profiles, is now completely ready and has been tested with an old MTB frame.Furthermore, first fitting tests with some bamboo rods are done. However, new raw material is needed... ...

Update (August 2013): The project is set "on hold" due to time restrictions of both partners. I personally came to the conclusion, that constructing a bamboo frame is not a really tremendously challenging task and rather leave that work to professionel frame builders (such as http://bamboocycles.com/) for the moment.

Custom Bike Building of Various Bikes

It all started during my study time in Ingolstadt, Germany when I bought a used mountainbike of a fairly small, but high-quality German frame builder: A Hot Chili Zymotic!

From this point on the bike underwent a few remodelation and tuning activities until it reached an evolution stage according to my expectations. This mostly included replacing all kind of parts with lighter ones made out of either carbon fibre or titanium.

Unfortunately this bike got stolen a few years ago. This sad experience triggered something inside me and made me start repeating this bike customization process with another used bike of the same kind. However, I did not stop after one bike but continued building up custom hardtail mountainbikes for different purposes ever since. They all have one thing in common: Highest quality, lightest parts and still a close eye on price and performance. Furthermore most bikes show a scattered combination of both vintage parts (mostly the bike frames) and COTS parts from all over the world.

Have a look at some results:

Black-Golden Street Racer

This is one of the newest projects and kept me busy for a few weeks. As a basis there is a German Nox Airbase racing frame in aero design (technically questionnable, I like the design though). Combined with a rigid carbon fork, some other carbon parts, a few alloy and titanium screws and details in gold and voila: A light, endurable, eye-catching bike for the summer, which you should definitely never leave alone in front of the ice cream parlor!

New Vintage Hot Chili Bikes

Two new projects for the dawning autumn in Berlin:

A Hot Chili X-Rage fully with Rock Shox suspension and SRAM 9.0/Deore XT gear system.

A Hot Chili Zymotic prototype frame currently being built up with hydraulic rim brakes, Deore XTR gear system and some light alloy/ carbon parts.