While there will always be a market for supermarket-quality, colour-coded ‘fixies’ with substandard bottom brackets, wouldn’t it be great if it was eschewed for the infinitely more intriguing and sustainable bamboo bicycle? James Marr and Ian McMillan run London’s Bamboo Bicycle Club, which have been enabling riders to build their own bikes… at a grass root level.
James and Ian run weekend-long workshops which result in a completed bamboo frame joined with hemp tape and epoxy resin. It may be a messy process but surely worth the satisfaction of riding a bike you have made yourself. If you can’t make it into the London workshop, Home Build Kits are available, with step-by-step instructions, for only 320 quid.
This independent documentary is inspirational:
Bamboo Biker Boys from Jonathan Stow on Vimeo.
