Ten frames in a day: The Macallan builds bamboo bikes

A team from The Macallan spent a day in our London workshop and left having built ten bamboo bicycle frames from raw cane — one of the bigger single-day team builds we've run.

The challenge

Most of our corporate team builds bring a small group through the full process of turning a pile of bamboo poles into a rideable frame. The Macallan came with a larger group and a tighter brief: ten frames, one day, everyone hands-on. That meant running several builds in parallel and keeping each one on track from the first cut to the last wrap.

What we did

We hosted the day at our London workshop, where every BBC build happens. Working in small groups, the team mitred and aligned their own tubes, then bound and set each joint by hand. By the end of the day there were ten frames standing where there had been bundles of cane that morning — built by people who, for the most part, had never made a bike before.

It is the same hands-on method we teach everyone, from first-time builders at home to the thousands who have come through our workshops. Nobody watches; everyone builds.

Why it matters

Bamboo is the thread that runs through everything we do — a fast-growing grass that makes a genuinely strong frame. A distillery that works in oak and time is a natural fit for a workshop that works in cane and craft. Days like this also help fund the rest of our mission: the schools we teach in, and the rehabilitation work behind Build to Bond.

Since 2012 we have trained more than 4,000 people to build their own bikes across 36-plus countries. A team building ten in a day sits comfortably inside that story.

Proof & links

• Original post: Building 10 bikes with Macallan Whisky (bamboobicycleclub.org), 17 April 2024
• Corporate and team-build enquiries: james@bamboobicycleclub.org