The other day, a friend asked me to build up a bamboo frame that he got from a Ghanaian friend,
and he also mentioned that if possible, the friend is asking if our shop
could become the Japanese distributor for them.
Yeah, no thanks.
This is what it looks like.
Is it okay to write DANSO as Danso?
There's a soccer player born in the Netherlands with Dutch nationality and Ghanaian heritage
named Erixon Danso, and
in katakana he's written as Erikuson Danso,
so I'll use Danso here.
If you're interested,
try searching for "DANSO BIKES" or "DANSO BAMBOO BIKES".
Even if a Japanese distributor is set up in the future,
people searching will probably end up here,
but that'll likely get in the way of their business. Sorry about that.
Made in Ghana. It says "booomers" on it,
and since some DANSO frames also have this
marking on the downtube,
it seems to be a brand name separate from the manufacturer name.
The frame alone weighs 3.14 kg.
It has 135 mm quick-release dropouts,
and the disc brake mount is International Standard.
With this rear triangle, if you squeeze it with one hand and apply pressure,
it flexes quite a bit—very squishy and wobbly.
The aluminum parts on the dropouts have a lot of scratches on them.
Since I've only seen this one frame,
I can't tell if this is a general tendency from this manufacturer.
The BB hole is sealed,
the head tube is sealed,
and the seat tube is cut flush—it doesn't connect to the inside of the frame.
But when you shake the frame, it rattles.
Something foreign is stuck inside the top tube or downtube,
but there's no way to get it out.
The seat tube is too fat,
so you can't mount a front derailleur.
On the Danso website, there are complete bikes shown with front derailleurs,
but some road bikes are built as front-single setups.
Looking at their website, similar frames
with disc brake mounts go for $400.
The components seem to be mostly Sora or Altus.
The rear brake can also be mounted with a caliper brake,
but it would need an arch size that's ridiculously large—
even Shimano's Large-size brake won't
reach the rim far enough.
And if you use a brake with an arch size that fits this,
it probably won't match the mechanical advantage of current Shimano brake levers,
so it's better to build it with disc brakes.
This is the shift cable guide mounted on the upper downtube.
Because the wall thickness isn't thin enough to rivet here or anywhere else on the frame,
they've epoxied and bolted five of these same cable guides
to the frame.
Right chainstay
BB shell back
...wait?
From the direction in which the cable guide is actually guiding the cable,
it should look like the diagram above, but that's wrong, so
the cable guide on the BB shell back is just a guide
to prevent the shift inner cable from coming off on the outside.
Since the inner cable is constantly rubbing against it,
you should run a liner through.
Or better yet, just make it a solid tunnel without a slot.
There are rear brake cable guides on the front and back of the top tube,
but with a disc brake setup, there's no small fitting on the left seat stay
to secure the brake cable or hose.
You'll need to zip-tie it in place in a couple of spots.
There's a bamboo node on the back of the downtube,
and it looks like there's a crack running right through it—
or am I imagining things?
You could push a thin needle all the way through into the frame.
Water could get in and cause rot,
so I'm thinking of filling this with epoxy,
but I don't know if the crack will propagate and grow even larger.
The node on the back of the top tube shows a similar tendency,
but it's in better condition.
I was planning to write about something when I built the front wheel for this,
but I ended up writing about it in the next post out of necessity.
and he also mentioned that if possible, the friend is asking if our shop
could become the Japanese distributor for them.
Yeah, no thanks.
This is what it looks like.
Is it okay to write DANSO as Danso?
There's a soccer player born in the Netherlands with Dutch nationality and Ghanaian heritage
named Erixon Danso, and
in katakana he's written as Erikuson Danso,
so I'll use Danso here.
If you're interested,
try searching for "DANSO BIKES" or "DANSO BAMBOO BIKES".
Even if a Japanese distributor is set up in the future,
people searching will probably end up here,
but that'll likely get in the way of their business. Sorry about that.
Made in Ghana. It says "booomers" on it,
and since some DANSO frames also have this
marking on the downtube,
it seems to be a brand name separate from the manufacturer name.
The frame alone weighs 3.14 kg.
It has 135 mm quick-release dropouts,
and the disc brake mount is International Standard.
With this rear triangle, if you squeeze it with one hand and apply pressure,
it flexes quite a bit—very squishy and wobbly.
The aluminum parts on the dropouts have a lot of scratches on them.
Since I've only seen this one frame,
I can't tell if this is a general tendency from this manufacturer.
The BB hole is sealed,
the head tube is sealed,
and the seat tube is cut flush—it doesn't connect to the inside of the frame.
But when you shake the frame, it rattles.
Something foreign is stuck inside the top tube or downtube,
but there's no way to get it out.
The seat tube is too fat,
so you can't mount a front derailleur.
On the Danso website, there are complete bikes shown with front derailleurs,
but some road bikes are built as front-single setups.
Looking at their website, similar frames
with disc brake mounts go for $400.
The components seem to be mostly Sora or Altus.
The rear brake can also be mounted with a caliper brake,
but it would need an arch size that's ridiculously large—
even Shimano's Large-size brake won't
reach the rim far enough.
And if you use a brake with an arch size that fits this,
it probably won't match the mechanical advantage of current Shimano brake levers,
so it's better to build it with disc brakes.
This is the shift cable guide mounted on the upper downtube.
Because the wall thickness isn't thin enough to rivet here or anywhere else on the frame,
they've epoxied and bolted five of these same cable guides
to the frame.
Right chainstay
BB shell back
...wait?
From the direction in which the cable guide is actually guiding the cable,
it should look like the diagram above, but that's wrong, so
the cable guide on the BB shell back is just a guide
to prevent the shift inner cable from coming off on the outside.
Since the inner cable is constantly rubbing against it,
you should run a liner through.
Or better yet, just make it a solid tunnel without a slot.
There are rear brake cable guides on the front and back of the top tube,
but with a disc brake setup, there's no small fitting on the left seat stay
to secure the brake cable or hose.
You'll need to zip-tie it in place in a couple of spots.
There's a bamboo node on the back of the downtube,
and it looks like there's a crack running right through it—
or am I imagining things?
You could push a thin needle all the way through into the frame.
Water could get in and cause rot,
so I'm thinking of filling this with epoxy,
but I don't know if the crack will propagate and grow even larger.
The node on the back of the top tube shows a similar tendency,
but it's in better condition.
I was planning to write about something when I built the front wheel for this,
but I ended up writing about it in the next post out of necessity.