I was mountain biking last weekend with one of my neighbours who is something of a collector. He is a paddler (races in kayaks) and was explaining that he had at least six kayaks, and then we got onto bikes…. Six was only the start! He has a bike specifically to ride to the kayak club, but more interesting than that was that he also has a bamboo bike. Yes, made out of that stuff that Pandas like. I have to admit that I thought he was joking when he told me but sure enough he does have a bamboo bike, then the day after I find out that they exist I was sent a link to “What’s stopping the bamboo bike from shooting into the mainstream?“. So they are in fact a mainstream (well almost) product.

What was really interesting was finding out that bamboo grows so quickly when farmed that you can cut enough to make a bike on a daily basis and it will just carry on growing, so it is a very eco-friendly material (if we ignore all the carbon fibre that is used to join the bamboo together). It was also interesting to see how much bikes flex, especially when you are out of the saddle and sprinting, forcing the bike from side to side underneath you. This is a problem that you would not think we would have with the Wattbike, except we do. Well, it is not a problem, more of an explanation about why you can change the saddle but not the handlebars. The answer is simple. On a Wattbike the saddle behaves just like the saddle on a regular bike, but the handle bars are different. One a regular bike when you put pressure on one side of the handlebars the bike leans to one side, and you either balance it or fall off. On a Wattbike when you lean on one side it stays there! Which means that when you are sprinting and putting all your effort through one side then the other you are exerting huge forces on the handlebars, as a result they have to be a bit stronger than the handlebars on your bike – infact a lot stronger.

We are developing drop and tri-bars for the Wattbike, and have seen the prototypes which are looking good, and are due out soon. Next time you are on your bike, take a look at the frame and handlebars when you are riding, (but do it somewhere you will not run into a tree/car/person/wall).