The Bamboo Bicycle Club combines DIY & natural-material bikes. Its newest project focuses on what’s arguably cycling’s most in-vogue discipline.
In short, you’ll get everything you need to build your own bamboo gravel bike when you order Bamboo Bicycle Club’s kit. A build plan, custom jig, bonding glue, bamboo, lugs, videos, and a manual all come in the box.
The idea? To ease the most common pain point with bamboo bikes, which is that they demand huge expertise and take forever to build.
90-hour builds are common, according to the club. But it claims its new kits can cut that commitment down to just eight hours.
You might not end up with a Jason O’Nions masterpiece — indeed, many bamboo builders, including Bamboo Bicycle Club founder James Marr, have been at it for a decade or more. But the club’s main goal with the kit is to give everyday cyclists a fair shot at creating their own functional bamboo bike.
Instead of custom frame joinery, the lug kit leverages simplistic technology that’s already here. That allows home builders “to create a consistent design and speed up the build progress by 75% as well as create a more sustainable and durable product,” the Bamboo Bicycle Club said in a press release. “Combining the lug with bamboo offers a natural vibration dampening creating a superior ride to all other bicycle frame materials. It will move and reform with riders creating a more connected ride whilst providing the stiffness and performance of traditional materials.”
Specs include:
- Tire clearance for 2.2 650b/52mm700c.
- Modular dropout for thru-axle, single speed/hub gear/thru-axle.
- Internal cable routing for rear/front derailleur, dropper post, and rear disc brake.
- 27.2mm and 31.6mm seat tube options.
- Rack and mudguard mounts, and optional frame inserts.
The result is a relatively narrow- or wide-tire touring or gravel rig. Lug sets are aluminum. Choose from four frame sizes, and pick it up now from Bamboo Bicycle Club for $620 MSRP (frame only).
