What made you decide to build a bamboo bike?

I loved the idea of building my own bike and when I found out you could make it from environmentally sustainable materials and could design the perfect geometry bike for my free ride MTB hard tail, I was hooked!

Did you enjoy building the bicycle from scratch and would you recommend the experience?

Building a bamboo bike was a daunting task. So I signed up for the weekend workshop plus one day finishing, which turned out to be the best idea. Very messy process! Also James’s expertise and experience was invaluable to the whole building process.

I really enjoyed the process of learning a new skill set. I would recommend it to anyone. It’s the best project I’ve ever done. Also I’ve got a FUN bike to ride.

DOO IT!!

What did you find most difficult about your bike build?

The most difficult bit of the building process for me was getting my head around the accuracy of the tube cutting/fitting/tacking. Thats where James’s advice was invaluable.

What was the easiest part of the build?

The bonding process was a little daunting to start with, but when I got going it was actually the easiest bit. It’s very messy! Bar the bit I got wrong! Which I had to go back and sort out on another day with James’s help.

How would you describe the ride of your finished bike?

When I got the bike fully built I went out to the Surrey Hills and gave it a good run on the sloppy winter trails. To my great surprise it rode really well on tight steep trails. It had a certain smoothness to the ride that I’ve never got from a metal frame on the bumps. I even hit a few jumps and drops. It survived!! It’s a lot stronger than I thought it would be. LOADS OF FUN.

What would you improve about the build experience or your finished bike?

If I could change anything it would be the ability to go boost spacing on the rear hub. And maybe a little longer in the reach? Also I wished I had thought about drainage holes on the build as I found out at the very wet and muddy weekend. It would have been easier to do it as you built it. Next time!