Product Care

Much of the general maintenance of your Booomers bamboo bike will be the same as you’d expect on any other bike, such as ensuring the joints are in good condition, replacing your tyres as needed, preventing rust on metallic areas and of course keeping your bike clean to reduce signs of wear and tear.

The bamboo frame is fine in wet weather but a rapid change in temperature can affect the frame’s polyurethane protective coating. So it’s best to avoid leaving it out in the rain or snow for a long period of time as it could weaken the protection.

You might have heard that bamboo is prone to cracks and may be worried as to whether your bike could break as a result.. Rest assured, although bamboo loves to crack, it will not break from the pressure. A crack or split is essentially a form of tension relief for the bamboo, and once it’s cracked it will not crack again and will not break completely.

Dealing with Cracks

We carefully dry bamboo before crafting the bike frames and this reduces the chance of splits. But it can occasionally happen after you buy your bike following changes in temperature, moisture or humidity.  Your frame will still be strong but you might want to deal with the split as follows. 

  • Minor split (fingernail)

Simply apply adhesive (household super glue is fine) to seal the tiny split. 

  • Small split (0.5 - 1mm wide)

We recommend a two step process. 

  1. Apply adhesive (household super glue is fine) to the split and allow to dry for 2 hours or so. 
  2. Fill any gaps with a strong epoxy-based adhesive (eg JB WoodWeld) and let dry before use. 
  • Major split (over 1mm wide)

Open the split as wide as possible and fill the inside of the bamboo with two part expanding polyurethane foam. Don’t try to compress the bamboo to close up the split. Just let it close down naturally but prevent the expanding foam from expanding the bamboo using zip ties or hose clamps. After the foam has hardened, dig out the foam from the split area and fill in the wall thickness with epoxy soaked hemp fiber or other strong fiber. If you are concerned please do contact us or send in a photo and we can talk you through it.

If you have any further concerns, or would like any advise, then please contact us.

 

 

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