Behold the Bamboo Bicycle
- Posted by: Siobhan O'Connor
- on June 22, 2009 at 11:31 am
This is one of those things that clicks immediately: A bike made of springy, light, sustainable, and abundant bamboo. The beauty up top is by Craig Calfee, who’s been making them since 2005. I’d heard of these before but I’ve never tried one, so I was excited to read this piece in today’s Guardian, which gives a pretty vivid description of what if feels like to ride:
When you played with a bamboo cane as a child, and swished it through the air, it felt like energy incarnate. That’s a little how this bike feels to ride. When I first sprint off, nothing happens for a split second, just like when you swish that bamboo cane. Then, almost before you’ve noticed, it springs ahead as though it has more energy than you’ve put in. It rivals carbon, steel, anything I’ve ridden. It’s also comfortable. But not like a big, heavy commuter bike with large, bouncy tires. It just soaks up the bumps, with no lolling around.
Sounds pretty great. And yes, we know that bamboo isn’t always sustainably harvested, but it can be. It is robust and it grows incredibly quickly (it took over my backyard as a kid—like, literally took it over), so there’s no reason we can’t do this right. Right now, the bikes are kind of pricey, but if they ever were to go mainstream that price would likely drop. Sounds like a win-win to us.
Has anyone else ridden one? Do you agree with Matthew Sparkes’s description?
DISCUSSION: 8 Comments
Why is it that the most tried-and-true fact of the
green/recycled/sustainable movement seems to be that the only people
who are allowed to save the planet are those with tons of disposable
income? This bike, which ranges in price from $1,900 all the way up to $3,200, is NOT going to effect the kind of environmental change we need. We need sustainable and green products that are going to supersede traditional products by their virtue or value, because that’s what the masses are concerned with. Only then will we see any real change.
@ Rope (12:24pm):I think you’re missing the point of the article. Where here does anyone suggest that this bicycle will be saving the planet? I don’t disagree that sustainable practices need to overcome traditional manufacturing methods in the mainstream market, but are we really going to tsk-tsk smaller entrepreneurial manufacturers who want to take the lead?Why not focus on the other important issues that this post draws attention to? Like the fact that not all bamboo harvesting techniques are sustainable – simply because a product contains bamboo in no way makes it “green”. This is an incredibly important issue that is quickly being buried as part of the new “greenwashing” trend. Or the part where creator Craig Calfee would like to develop the product so that it could be locally sourced and manufactured by villages in Africa – in what way does that support the tried and true “fact” that only those with disposable income can save the planet?Don’t be so quick to judge and instead try to take in the bigger picture here
Calfee does make an expensive bike, but these can also be made inexpensively and Calfee is teaching people in Africa to do that. Maybe someone will make an inexpensive version in Europe and the US.
Wanna make your own? It’s still pricey, but the Bamboo Bike Studio, a project in partnership with Columbia University Earth Institute-based Bamboo Bike Project and the Millennium Cities Initiative, holds weekend workshops in Brooklyn:
“Walk in Saturday. Ride out Sunday.”
I’m dying to do this.
I really like these businesses that are finding customers who are willing to pay a lot for something eco-innovative but also are able to bring that technology to people who really need it and where it can make a bigger environmental and social impact.
I guess the question is how much does this really help someone who can’t afford a conventional bike? Certainly it replaces the frame, but some of the most expensive parts of a bike, even a simple bike, are the components, and most parts of a bike, especially the frame, last for ages, and can be bought cheaply second or third or fourth hand. Reading Calfee’s account of his work in Ghana makes it sound really difficult to build bamboo bikes there, but that it has the potential to make a difference for people. Maybe other parts of the bike can eventually be sourced locally (belts instead of chains? how could you do the wheels?).
Any technology is expensive to begin with. But then the prices come down. Usually. I hope they do here.
It’s easy to be skeptical about new technologies/movements/way-of-living isn’t it? Okay, maybe it doesn’t make sense that a lot of the sustainable products currently available—products designed to better our lives—are more expensive than non-sustainable products that are mass-marketed, but isn’t that just the nature of the beast? Smaller companies are producing them to get the ball rolling until it catches on so that more sustainable products are produced by more companies and then sold at a lower price. Plus, this Bamboo Bicycle in particular is something that the buyer can actively participate in making (see Casey’s link on the Bamboo Bike Studio). And yes, for now, it is pricey… but patience is key (i hope). We’ve spent years and years bashing our planet physically. We can only try to do our best to help it heal and I’d like to think that it involves a little positive reinforcement despite an unknown future.
Looks great, but it’s quite expensive.