Bamboo bike building takes trial and error A Washington state man said it took him a lot of trial and error to build his own bike out of bamboo. SPOKANE, Wash., June 12 (UPI) -- A Washington state man said it took him a lot of trial and error to build his own bike out of bamboo. Paul Fish of Spokane, founder of retail and online outdoor-equipment company Mountain Gear, said he decided to build the bamboo bike on a whim and his initial attempts resulted in a lot of learning experiences, the Spokesman-Review, Spokane, reported Tuesday. Do you know what happens when you don't punch a hole in the nodes of a bamboo pole before applying the torch? The pole explodes," Fish said. Fish said he received a lot of valuable advice from the Bikecad Web site, www.bikecad.ca, and local machinist and bike-frame builder Gary Selner of Hairy Gary Bicycles. He said he was able to complete his first successful bamboo bike last week. "Don't get any ideas," Fish said. I like my new bamboo bike, but I'm not going anywhere as a bike builder.