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Calfee Design building bamboo bikes for the first and third worlds

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The Calfee Design Bamboo road racing bike
Workers building bamboo bikes in Ghana
A bamboo bike on the job in Ghana
A bamboo cargo bike built in Ghana
A client's Calfee Design Bamboo triathlon bike
The Calfee Design Bamboo road racing bike
The Calfee Design Bamboo mountain bike
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We’ve seen bikes with frames made out of aluminum, titanium, carbon fiber, and even IsoTruss tubes, but bamboo? Well yes, actually, we saw some here in Gizmag just last May. Back then, we were looking at some fairly basic city bikes built by Brazilian designer Flavio Deslandes. This time around the bamboo bikes are decidedly higher-end creations, built by Californian designer Craig Calfee, of Calfee Design. Although these bikes are definitely high-end, he’s also working on using bamboo to provide employment and cheap transportation for the people of Ghana.

Calfee started out building carbon fiber frames in 1987. In 1995, as a publicity stunt, he built a bamboo-framed errand bike. It spawned 11 others, built for staff, family and friends, who commented on how smooth the ride was. By 2005, he decided to go into production. He now offers road racing, triathlon, cyclocross and mountain models.

Bamboo is used for all the main tubes, although you can choose carbon chainstays for extra stiffness. The bamboo is smoked and heat treated before construction, to prevent splitting. The tubes are joined together using hemp fiber lugs, then everything gets coated with polyurethane.

The Calfee Design Bamboo mountain bike

The finished frames weigh four to six pounds, and are said to offer excellent vibration damping, while also providing good stiffness. Calfee claims that the bamboo is very crash-resistant, to the point where he doesn’t even offer carbon mountain bike frames anymore. Bamboo also, of course, has a much lower carbon footprint than traditional frame materials - only water and sun are required to produce it.

A bamboo bike on the job in Ghana

While Craig’s bikes are definitely aimed at the affluent buyer, he’s also trying to get inexpensive bamboo bikes into the hands of villagers in Ghana. In 1984, he came up with the idea of a bamboo bike program while visiting Africa. He noticed that there was a lot of bamboo, but not enough cargo bikes, and not enough jobs. Since that time, he has been working on teaching local entrepreneurs how to build their own bamboo bikes, and looking for sponsors to provide funding and supplies. He plans to extend the project to other developing nations.

Calfee’s creations cost upwards of $US2,695 for the frame only, and can be purchased direct through his website.

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4 comments
hourglass
WARNING : Be wary of Pandas
Will, the tink
Bamboo bikes for 1st and 3rd-world countries huh. I keep hearing about 1st and 3rd-world countries. Where are all the 2nd-world countries? ;>) If this application is as strong as carbon fiber, why not try it in motorcycles and light-weight race cars?
Anumakonda Jagadeesh
Bamboo bike has been designed by an Inventor from Assam(India). He won an prize in \"NATIONAL INNOVATION AWARDS\",in New Delhi,India.
He also made a bamboo jacket, a bamboo tooth etc.,
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP) India
Ct
$2695 for 3rd world countries?