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.
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?
I am growing timber bamboo and pole bamboo to use for construction projects around the property. A bamboo bicycle? NO!
Bamboo bicycle bamboozle?
I have eaten Bamboo Shoots but have not had the privilege of tasting Bamboo “Spirits”! That would be a good name for a drink! 😉
Mike Davis the Panda Bear eating bamboo shoots.
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!
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.
When I was in Lisbon two weeks ago, I was riding my hybrid on and off six inch curbs and over cobblestones. I can’t imagine a bamboo frame maintaining much rigidity after a few hours of that sort of treatment.
Bambike frames are certified to EN 14766 and EN 14781, the toughest standards in the bicycle industry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQkKQ0STi6U
Won’t the bamboo frame be prone to warping?
Carpenter bees and termites
Hit a pothole and you’ll have the rear wheel up your butt. I see the front forks look awful metallic like.
Those are bamboo shock absorbers………………;-)
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.
“Only a moron would spend $500 on a bamboo bike”
Only a moron would take Puff Host seriously.
AOL was that idiot to the tune of $315 million.
As soon as millionaire Arianna starts being committed to these silly ideas herself I won’t be paying any attention to the Huffington Post.
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..