When you think of bicycles, you think about steel, Cr-Moly, aluminum, and carbon fiber. How about bamboo?
Bamboo has numerous qualities that make it an excellent material for a bicycle frame. It has excellent tensional rigidity with the dampening quality of carbon fiber and the durability of steel. Bamboo is a readily available, self-generating, renewable resource that leaves no carbon foot-print. The bamboo is smoked and treated to prevent splitting. It is then sealed with tung-oil to preserve the bamboo while providing an au-naturale finish. Read on for details and video.
The drive-train and components on this exciting, unique bike are Shimano-Ulterga drive-train. The wheels are custom built to carry the 600 lb. payload for a 13,000 mile journey.
Craig Calfee built his first bamboo bike eleven years ago as a novelty for a bike exposition and has been building bamboo bikes for retail sales going on years.
He has sold over 100 bamboo bikes to date. He has designed frames and complete bikes include tandems, mountain bikes, road bikes and triathlon bikes. The triplet (bicycle for three) he is designing for the Tour de Revs will be the first triplet bicycle made out of bamboo.
Craig has been very involved with the Earth Institute at Columbia University, helping the people of Ghana built bamboo bikes for commercial and personal transportation.