Ben Forsbrook is our chief frame builder, and manages our Yorkshire workshop.

“Being keen on cycling and everything bike related makes working for Bamboo Bikes a pretty awesome job. Added to the fact it’s a company that’s new, eco-friendly and run by like minded people, it was a fantastic opportunity for me to come straight from University into a job.

Bamboo is a brilliant material and my 3rd year engineering project at Exeter University was based around the material and the mechanical properties of bamboo. From the research carried out, I learnt that it makes perfect sense for a bike to made from bamboo. It’s light, strong, eco-friendly and it looks unique.

Then I rode one…it felt so comfortable over small bumps and lumps and instantly wanted one and I’m sure I won’t be the only one!”

Bamboo’s unique and varied aesthetic offers many options for bike builders working with this natural material.

Black bamboo can look very sophisticated in certain applications, and offers a completely different style to what you might expect from a ‘bamboo colour’.

Most bamboo will be the standard golden yellow colour, once dried.  Usually the bamboo is seasoned outside in the sun, although if smoked, the appearance is altered.

Dyes can be applied to bamboo for various effects, and we are experimenting with some of these in our workshop.  This is already being done for various bamboo products, furniture etc., but we have to explore the effect of the dyes on the strength of the material long term, before unveiling these options.  Here’s a great picture to get your imagination going:

Flax is a flowering plant, with evidence of its use being dated as far back as 30,000 BC in Egypt.  However, the advantage of it is that it can be grown very successfully right here in the UK.

The fruit of the plant is flax seeds, used as an edible seed, but also as the source of linseed oil.  The fact that the plant serves many functions means increased productivity from the land used to grow it.

The stem of the plant is used to weave into fibres, and it is this fibre which we use in the lugs of our frames.  The coarse grades of flax are used for rope and twine, the finer being used for clothing.

Flax is stronger than cotton, soft and flexible, creating the ideal material to compliment bamboo’s vibration absorbing qualities.

Bamboo is a grass, and there are approximately 1,450 species in the world.  A lover of tropical conditions, bamboo became known to western gardeners in the first half of the 19th century.  Many species are now well established in the UK.

Why is it good for frame building?

All its fibres run in one direction only – lengthways – resulting in the stress of riding continuously travelling through the frame without being passed to the rider.  This is why riding bamboo feels smoother and quieter.  It offers a much more comfortable riding experience, enabling the rider to focus on the handling.

We love working with bamboo, and here are some of our favourite reasons:

• Bamboo has a higher tensile strength than steel – 28,000 per square inch vs. 23,000 for steel
• Bamboo is extremely absorbent of vibrations and bumps in the road & trail
• Absorbing impact well, bamboo performs well riding such as mountain biking
• Bamboo grows fast – some species can grow up to 1m in 24 hours!
• Bamboo releases up to 35% more oxygen into the atmosphere than an equivalent stand of trees
• Minimal water and pesticides are needed to grow bamboo – particlularly when compared to a crop such as cotton which needs  a lot of water
• Our designs maximise the natural stiffness of bamboo making amongst the stiffest frames out there

Bamboo Bikes XC MTB – Tech spec

• Bamboo tubes have extremely consistent properties from one to the next & so make an ideal natural material for high tech applications like bicycle frames
• Aesthetically beautiful, each of our frames is unique due to the markings on bamboo

Coming soon – bamboo bikes and their aesthetics

We are so happy to have been shortlisted for Yorkshire Post’s ‘Best environmental start up‘ business award!

The awards are well known to Yorkshire businesses, and there is always tough competition due to the number of forward thinking and innovative organisations within England’s largest county.

“Judges were very impressed with the quality of the entries” says Yorkshire Post.

Here is the shortlist for our category:

“Best Environmental Start-up:

• Bamboo Bikes
• Grasshopper Couriers
• Revive Leeds”

We would like to wish the others good luck - we can’t wait to see who wins!

“Claire Brook, partner at Dickinson Dees law firm, based in Leeds, said: “It is a superb way for the Yorkshire Post to showcase the excellent work going on in this sector throughout Yorkshire, and we are proud to be associated with the awards.”

We couldn’t agree more!

The winners will be announced at an awards night in Leeds on May 10. This year’s keynote speaker is Caroline Flint, the Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. The awards, which are in their fourth year, attracted around 90 entries.

Click here to go to the Yorkshire Post page

We are very excited to be launching our Race Team Jerseys for sale!

Bamboo Race Team launch at Sherwood Pines 25.03.12

We co-sponsor the team with Torq Fitness and Green Oil

Made of lightweight ‘cafe’ fabric (yes, it really is from recycled coffee grounds!), the Jersey breathes well and is loose fitting.  Available in men’s and women’s (Women’s has a short zip at the neck)

£37.50 inc. P&P to UK mainland – order via buy@bamboobike.co

James Hards, Bamboo Race Team – @James_Hards

“The first round of the ‘Chain Reaction Cycles’ marathon series was held at Builth Wells last weekend, and having done the race twice in the last 3 years, I know the course a bit and absolutely love it. This was however my first race as team rider for Bamboo Bikes, and riding the new bike in a race setup on my local trails in the Forest of Dean was feeling great, so I was incredibly excited as to see how well it would perform on some proper Welsh hills!

Sunday dawned cold and grey with drizzle every so often. Not brilliant race conditions, but at least no proper rain was forecasted which meant clothing was an easy choice. As it’s a mass start of about 1000 riders with 3 different race distances, I started fairly near the front (in the top 50) to avoid losing too much time in the first road section where everyone jostles for position and is always a bit of a nightmare. Obviously generated a fair bit of interest with the bike, and I was pleasantly surprised when everyone I talked to said ‘I saw/was reading about one of those last week!’ Bamboo is most definitely on the rise!’

I felt great as we got underway, and as soon as we turned off-road and the first real climb began, I started making up some places. This however was completely undone as following the wheel of the guy in-front led me the wrong way at a junction on a very quick descent. We didn’t notice until we came to a locked gate a good 50 metres down the track with 15 or so other riders milling about!

We soon got back on the course and down to the first feed station. I was bit annoyed at losing places so didn’t bother to stop, and I put the power down on the next road section and climb. At the top, the 70km distance split off and gave me a good indication of who I was racing in the 55km. More quick descending and road sections meant I was getting closer to the front, and the riders were getting further apart.

I managed to catch the 4 leaders on an incredibly steep bit of road, and stayed in reach of them until the next feed station. Stopping to top off my water bottle gave me a good chance to consider my options. I decided to attack as I was feeling so good and no sooner as I got going again, one of the leaders stopped with a puncture!

I got to the front and led for a few horrible off-camber, grassy, wet, branch strewn climbs, but eventually felt my legs getting a bit pressured and fell back into 4^th position, just behind the leaders.

There I stayed in and out of contact for about 25 minutes until I started feeling first signs of cramp and my concentration dropping. I lost a few more places and watched the top three of the 75km rejoin and fly past me before I reached the end.

Annoyingly I got caught up in a sprint finish with an overly enthusiastic rider who got nearly got in front of me, but cut across and took out my front wheel. We both went down (me significantly harder) and I found out that barrelling across the tarmac is rather painful! The guy was extremely apologetic though, and literally placed me back on my bike so I could finish. Went straight to the medics afterwards to assess the damage and get cleaned up (road rash, cuts, bruises, dented helmet, ripped saddle, general scuffs).

A rubbish end to an otherwise very successful day! The bamboo bike was as I expected… superb and took everything that the course threw at it (and a bit more). This was also a really good experience at being at the front of this sort of race.

I look forward to the next one!”

Leading up to the Easter weekend, I’m sure lots of you have exciting plans, some of which will be to head to the first Nutcracker MTB round on Sunday.  Traditionally, Easter eggs are the basis of the ‘hunt’, but we wanted to put our own spin on things.

There will be one of our Bamboo XC MTBs racing on Sunday, and two of our riders wearing Team Bamboo Bikes Jerseys.  Get your picture taken next to one of them and/or the bike for a chance to win one of 3 Easter Eggs!

Please send all photos to us on buy@bamboobike.co by 9am next Wednesday 11th and we will randomly choose 3 of you to win.

Imaginative and creative entries always welcome, and the best pics will be added to our website and Facebook page.

Happy hunting!

CYCLETTA – WOMEN ON WHEELS FOR FITNESS AND FUN

Bamboo Bikes has a female MD and as such, we like to promote events which encourage more women into sport and cycling specifically. We will be riding in as many Cycletta events as we can get to this year; look out for our bamboo bikes!

Cycletta are on Facebook and Twitter

“Cycletta is the UK’s leading series of women-only bike rides set in stunning, family friendly host venues. There are seven events around the country featuring spectacular routes between 40km and 80km, making them manageable and achievable, even if you haven’t ridden a bike in years: 70% of participants in the 2011 events had never taken part in a cycling event before.

Supported by Olympic Gold medallist Victoria Pendleton, Grazia magazine, Sky and British Cycling, we are all committed to encouraging more women to take up cycling for fitness and fun. The events are the perfect way for women across the UK to get involved in the sport, raise money for charity and have a great day out with family and friends.

If that wasn’t enough, after crossing the finish line with all your hard work done, we feel it’s important that we give something back to you. We invite you to come and join us at our ‘Pamper Zone’ where we will be offering free mini manicures, a massage to ease those sore muscles and our helmet hair remedy station.

The seven Cycletta events across the UK in 2012 to choose from are:

• Cycletta Bedfordshire: Woburn Abbey, 13th May
• Cycletta Wiltshire: Lydiard Park, 24th June 
• Cycletta at the Festival of Sport: St Michael’s Mount, Cornwall, 15th Sept
• Cycletta Warwickshire: Ragley Hall, 23^rd Sept
• Cycletta Brighton: Plumpton Racecourse, 30th September
• Cycletta Cheshire: Tatton Park, 7th October
• Cycletta New Forest: Beaulieu Palace, 21st October

Enter now at www.cycletta.co.uk to join Victoria Pendleton and thousands of other women cycle through picturesque countryside.”

We are a young and dynamic Social Enterprise, in our second year of trading. We are pioneering the use of bamboo in bike frame building in the UK, with sales to the cycle industry in Europe and beyond. Committed to UK manufacture; the frames are built at our workshop in Yorkshire.

Our MD, Rachel Hammond, started selling bamboo bikes at 26, and now at 30 she heads up the business, focusing on sales and marketing.

We are excited to announce presentations for different events: after dinner speaking, fundraising events, Schools, Colleges, Universities, workplaces, the list goes on! We will come to you, present information on the business and the process of building bamboo frames.

With a new Mountain Bike race team recently launched, we will also talk about the team, results, and bring a bike for demo rides.

We will bring a range of products to buy and discounts for members of the audience.

The first 2 events to be booked will be free of charge, with a small fee of £50 thereafter (plus rail travel).

Please email buy@bamboobike.co to book your talk now.