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 has been enabling riders to build their own bikes… at a grass roots 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 340 quid. Just take your pick from gravel, road or MTB styles.
Need inspiration? Sit back and enjoy this independent documentary from Intraspectrum Studios on Vimeo.
