Bamboo Bikes

It’s pretty evident that in recent years, cycling has gained a lot of momentum. Whether it’s because of eco-conscious riders looking to lower carbon emissions or the fascination with the fixed-gear hysteria, everywhere you look, more and more people are choosing bikes as their preferred mode of transportation. With the increased demand, many designers and artists are using bicycles as their canvas for both practical and arty designs.

For cycle maker Craig Calfee, bamboo’s place in today’s world is much more than just on a panda’s dinner plate. Calfee’s company CalfeeDesign which has been renowned for building bikes out of carbon fiber, decided to enter into the foray of producing bamboo bike frames. Focusing on technical superiority, the bamboo bikes that they put together are custom built to order making the bike as unique as each individual rider. To ensure that the bamboo doesn’t break, it is smoked and heat treated to prevent it from splitting. According to CalfeeDesign, if there were an award for “Bicycle with lowest carbon footprint”, this frame would definitely come out on top.

So besides being environmentally friendly and kind of cool looking, you may be asking yourself why in God’s name would I want a bike made out of bamboo? Well for one, bamboo is tough and has the ability to endure vibration. For anyone who’s ever ridden a bike on bumpy surfaces, you would understand how important that is. And although these bamboo bikes are a tad heavier than their carbon fiber siblings, they’re still tremendously light and will get you around the city comfortably.

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Ed note: The background Queen song is also *ahem* quite interesting to say the least.