A while back I wrote a post about Bicycles and the materials they are made of. I gave some examples of bicycles made with renewable materials, like composites reinforced with flax fibres. I’ve already show you a few pics of bicycles made with bamboo that I’ve found while visiting Expoquimia. Today I’d like to show you more bamboo bikes, adding laminated bamboo and engineered wood ones.
First is the Bamboosero Bikes project, lead by Craig Calfee. It helps developing communities to produce bamboo bikes, which are then sold around the world. The ease to find the raw material and to work with it to produce sustainable and reliable bicycles is clearly shown in the video below. Right now this project is set in Ghana, but the promoters would like financial support to export the idea to other countries.
Renovo Hardwood Bikes (Portland, USA) builds hollow frames with engineered wood and complete bikes with laminated bamboo. Although Bamboosero bikes are a more complete project when it comes to sustainability, the Renovo Hardwood Bikes are incredibly beautiful.
The picture below shows a Renovo Pandurance Road, made with laminated bamboo and belonging to the Panda Bicycle series. Unlike the Bamboosero ones, the frame here is not hollow. Instead several layers of thin laminated bamboo are joint together by an epoxy resin. A similar method than the one use with skateboards, except in this case the material is bamboo and not maple wood.
The Renovo R4 is made with engineered wood, joining together two pieces, using pressure and epoxy resin. The resulting frame is hollow, reducing the overall weight. I would love to test one of these great looking bikes, made with renewable and sustainable materials.
