Everything in the Box — The Gravel Lugged Frame Build Kit

This is the fast route to a bamboo gravel bike.

The Gravel Lugged Frame Kit laid out in full: two MDF jig boards (main triangle and rear triangle), three bamboo tubes marked with BBC logo stickers, a set of black anodised aluminium lugs — head tube junction, bottom bracket cluster, seat tube top — plus chainstay spacers in raw bamboo, black cable guides, black dropouts, a Plexibond structural adhesive tube, assorted hardware, and the build booklets: "Gravel Lugged Frame Kit, Small" with that hello-yellow sticker on the cover and the detailed geometry spec sheet alongside it.

The lugged system is different from the flax-and-resin approach. Instead of wrapping joints by hand with fibre cloth, you're bonding pre-machined aluminium lugs directly onto the bamboo tubes. The result is a stiffer joint, a more precise geometry, and a faster build — typically achievable over a weekend rather than a multi-day workshop.

The lugs are the engineering here. CNC-machined, anodised black, designed specifically around BBC frame geometry. They interface with the bamboo tubes at tight tolerances, and once bonded with structural adhesive they're not going anywhere. Riders have covered thousands of kilometres on lugged BBC gravel frames. They hold up.

What's clever about the lugged approach is accessibility. You don't need to master the art of fibre wrapping to build a strong, accurate frame. The geometry is dialled in by the jig. The joints are handled by the lugs. Your job is to prep the tubes, mix the adhesive, assemble everything, and let the chemistry do its work.

Then you build it up with whatever drivetrain, wheels, and bars you want.

This is the Small size. The kit comes in multiple geometries to suit different riders.

Ready to start? 🎋