Bamboo bike? Only if you’ve got £3000 to spare
This bamboo bike makes cycling an even more sustainable method of transport. Produced by California-based Calfee Design, the frame is made from bamboo stems hand-picked in the mountains of Taiwan’s Yushan national park (to add to the political correctness of this product, the workers in Taiwan are part of a social project helping local people from disadvantaged backgrounds).
The bamboo is shipped to California where the stems are heat-treated. These are then assembled into a frame and coated in a satin poly-urethane sealant. Lug connections are made from hemp fibre. Each frame requires 2.7m of bamboo and weighs 4-5lb. However, the complete bike weighs 18-19lb.
The basic frame costs £2,175: other parts including saddle and handlebars put the price up to at least £3000. The bike can be purchased at the Eco Age shop in Chiswick, London. It’s necessary to be rich as well as eco-conscious to own a Calfee- only 2 have been sold in London so far. Perhaps National Bike Week (13th - 21st June) will prompt more sales.
Benefits of bamboo:
- It grows very fast: some species grow up to 1.5m a day
- It supports a greater working load than mild steel without breaking
- It does not fatigue like metal (but must be coated with a waterproof sealant)
- It absorbs about five times as much greenhouse gas as a ’conventional’ tree plantation
Inspecting raw hemp fibre that will be used to make lugs
Inspecting the inner diameter of a bamboo tube
Preparing a bamboo stem for cutting
Filed under: Energy, Green technology, Sustainable products
Interesting. The overall bike weight is on a par with carbon fibre framed bikes costing half the price, and the equipment hanging on the frame isn’t market-leading so it’s difficult to see this appealing to hardened cycling enthusiasts (unless they have deep green sympathies and and equally deep pockets!).
Other natural material such as flax have also been used on frames (eg by Belgian firm Museeuw), albeit mixed with carbon fibre.
Wow, it is a beautiful machine. I’ve never been one for that machismo nonsense of the lightest, most up to date stuff.
I’m saving up for one, because it is a well designed bike, and the concept is brilliant.
Carbon/resin composite are essentially disposable and when they fail they fail catastrophically.