Bamboo for stall bars?

I'm thinking about making stall bars... there are plenty of plans available online... my question has to do with the material of the bar... has anyone tried using bamboo poles instead of hardwood dowels? I have never worked with bamboo before. But I'm thinking about the switch for two reasons... price and strength. It looks like I can get the same size bamboo pole for half the price of hardwood dowels. The other reason is I've heard that bamboo is much stronger than wood... I'm a bigger guy (6ft & ~230lbs) and I'm worried about the strength of the bars. I've heard stories about hardwood dowels bending with guys much smaller than me using them. Thoughts? 

 

Thanks,

Dan

at 230# I'd probably use steel pipe.  bamboo is strong, in that it won't break, but it bends quite easily.  you'd get even more flexing of the bar than with hardwood.  steel pipe is not too much more expensive than hardwood.  you'd probably be fine with the wood as well, but may want to either go with 1-1/2 inch dowels, or limit your width to 2-1/2 ft instead of 3.  

I was curious if bamboo was more bendy... I'm thinking I'm going to use 2" hardwood or bamboo... I'll have to check out steel pipe... I really like the feel of wood but maybe that's the way to go... thanks!

I work with bamboo and there is some different between bamboo and bamboo. If you use any kind of wood ,you can add strenght to dowels by making right design of dowels(f.exp.oval). I make all perfect so i look at a direction of strains too.

Go for steel at least for top dowel

On the same side as you are, I made maple stall bars.

They bend so much I get nervous. I would make the bottom 5 rungs metal.

The bottom 3 rungs I would make 1.5 inches or 2 inches. The 1.25 inch dowels hurt my feet doing many of the stretches.