Get around town on a bicycle made from bamboo

Eco-conscious commuters wishing to make the ultimate environmental statement can now get on their bikes to do so with the arrival of a bicycle made from bamboo.

Bamboo has been used throughout history for everything from musical instruments to medicine. Its combination of strength and flexibility make it a good hoice for building bikes.

Bamboo doesn't rust or fatigue like metals do. It simply needs to be preserved properly and coated with a waterproof sealer. Bamboo is also stronger than mild steel and more elastic than carbon fibre meaning it absorbs shock exceptionally well.

Each bamboo stem used in the production of the bicycles is hand picked by Craig Calfee, the founder of Calfee Design who has been building bike frames from bamboo since 1995.

All of the Calfee Design bikes are hand crafted in California. The bamboo used for the frames is sourced from the Yushan region, Tiawan.

Chiswick's Eco-Age is the UK's only stockists of these two wheeled. Eco's co-founder Nicola Giuggioli told ChiswickW4.com, "This bike is yet another example, if we still need it, of how nature already produces materials that have better performance and quality than the ones humans have been developing over the last decades.

When will we all learn that instead of processing minerals, chemicals and fossil fuels at incredibly high temperatures, we only have to follow the examples that are in front of us every day?

On the subject of the £3,000 price tag, Nicola said, "Expensive as a bike? Yes it is but steel and carbon fibers bikes where not cheaper when they first came out on the market."

June 19, 2009