Puffington Host : Bamboo Bicycles To Save The Planet

 

How can you make a green form of transportation even greener? Bryan McClelland may have the answer: bamboo bikes.

McClelland has created the BamBike, a bicycle made out of bamboo. The bicycles are made in Manila, Phillipines, which Reuters reports is one of the most polluted capitals in the world. The bikes, costing around $500, are built by local skilled laborers, and the company advertises that as “a company that is interested in helping out people and the planet,” their bicycles are made with fair-trade labor.

The BamBike frame is made out of cut and dried bamboo lumber and wrapped with Manila hemp fibers. According to McClelland, bamboo is “one of the greenest building materials on earth, so bicycles built out of bamboo are, more or less, the greenest way to get around.”

Not everyone has jumped on the bamboo bandwagon. Some locals are skeptical of the bike’s durability, although McClelland claims that compared to metal, bamboo has the same tensile strength and a higher strength to weight ratio.

What do you think? Would you ride a bamboo bike?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

No. Only a moron would spend $500 on a bamboo bike.


How can you make a green form of transportation even greener? Bryan McClelland may have the answer: bamboo bikes.

McClelland has created the BamBike, a bicycle made out of bamboo. The bicycles are made in Manila, Phillipines, which Reuters reports is one of the most polluted capitals in the world. The bikes, costing around $500, are built by local skilled laborers, and the company advertises that as “a company that is interested in helping out people and the planet,” their bicycles are made with fair-trade labor.

The BamBike frame is made out of cut and dried bamboo lumber and wrapped with Manila hemp fibers. According to McClelland, bamboo is “one of the greenest building materials on earth, so bicycles built out of bamboo are, more or less, the greenest way to get around.”

Not everyone has jumped on the bamboo bandwagon. Some locals are skeptical of the bike’s durability, although McClelland claims that compared to metal, bamboo has the same tensile strength and a higher strength to weight ratio.

What do you think? Would you ride a bamboo bike?

About Tony Heller

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17 Responses to Puffington Host : Bamboo Bicycles To Save The Planet

  1. Mike Davis says:

    I am growing timber bamboo and pole bamboo to use for construction projects around the property. A bamboo bicycle? NO!

  2. Robert of Ottawa says:

    Bamboo bicycle bamboozle?

    • Mike Davis says:

      I have eaten Bamboo Shoots but have not had the privilege of tasting Bamboo “Spirits”! That would be a good name for a drink! 😉

      • Baa Humbug says:

        Mike Davis the Panda Bear eating bamboo shoots.

      • Mike Davis says:

        They go really good it Chinese Food! I have not picked any out of my “Garden” as I prefer fresh asparagus which comes in season about the same time as the bamboo is at the proper texture to eat!

  3. etudiant says:

    A bamboo bike frame is not much different from any other composite frame such as a carbon fiber one.
    However, it may be somewhat more susceptible to natural decay, particularly at the junctions of the tubes, which are really the key to a solid structure. It should still last for a couple of decades unless left out in the monsoons.
    My guess is that for $500, this is a rich mans plaything, an impression strongly supported by the bike’s derailleur gear train, which is entirely out of keeping with a cheap and robust renewable resource built bike.
    A third world bike has been a dream project for many aid organizations. None has had any impact, afaik, mostly because the designs have all been put together away from the users. Seen that China and Vietnam have both used the humble steel bicycle as a powerful tool to improve their economies, it is evident that it is not the technology or the material used for the bike that needs change. The problem is elsewhere, in the political and economic leadership.

  4. Jimbo says:

    Won’t the bamboo frame be prone to warping?

  5. Latitude says:

    Carpenter bees and termites

  6. Ralph says:

    Hit a pothole and you’ll have the rear wheel up your butt. I see the front forks look awful metallic like.

  7. Philip Finck says:

    I see 10 pieces of bamboo other than the basket. Anything with any `technology’ in the making is metal or other composites.

    If the metal is recycled, there is arguably no gain in using the bamboo….. other than to starve pandas. If they are growing bamboo commercially it would be better used to expand the habitat of the panda which is apparently under considerable pressure.

  8. Paul H says:

    “Only a moron would spend $500 on a bamboo bike”

    Only a moron would take Puff Host seriously.

  9. Amino Acids in Meteorites says:

    As soon as millionaire Arianna starts being committed to these silly ideas herself I won’t be paying any attention to the Huffington Post.

  10. Andy Weiss says:

    There was a time that bamboo shafted golf clubs were a fad, thought of as being light, strong and flexible. That lasted about 5 minutes, as in reality they were light, flimsy and flexible..

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