BBC News: Kate Strong rides 3,000 miles around Britain on a bamboo bike

“It’s been three years in the making. I’ve never cycled more than five days in a row, so I’ve got 90 days in a row. Apart from the physical wear and tear, just mentally I’m unsure how I’ll feel, and that’s why I’ve opened the route up for people to come and join me.” — Kate Strong, BBC News, 5 June 2023

BBC News covered Kate Strong’s departure from Westminster on World Environment Day, 5 June 2023, as she set off on a 3,000-mile bamboo bike circumnavigation of mainland Britain. This was BBC’s first appearance in a BBC News article — and the first time the organisation’s home-build kit had been nationally broadcast as the vehicle for a major expedition.

Launch day

Strong, 44, had spent three years planning the expedition she named Climate Cycle. She had built the bamboo frame herself from a BBC kit — her first attempt was unusable, and she rebuilt using the pre-set steel binding configuration. The rebuilt frame was the bike she rode out of Westminster.

The BBC News article focused on the departure and Strong’s psychology: she had never ridden more than five consecutive days, and was about to ride 90. She had opened the route to others — inviting people to join her for sections, partly for safety, partly because the expedition’s purpose (visiting climate projects) was more powerful with witnesses.

“By camping, it’s a way of saying we need to get more out in nature and get curious about it and start protecting it, otherwise we won’t care.” — Kate Strong, BBC News, 5 June 2023

The bamboo kit context

BBC News described the bike as a “handmade bamboo bicycle” built from a BBC kit. Strong’s own description of the first failed build attempt — “It was unrideable. There’s no way it could have managed 3,000 miles” — added an unexpected layer of honesty to a departure story that might otherwise have been purely promotional. The rebuild and the admission that it required two attempts made the story more credible, not less.

The article noted Strong’s planned route and the expedition’s climate purpose: visiting approximately 40 innovative climate projects across England, Wales, and Scotland. The bamboo frame — carbon-positive in its manufacture, built by the rider herself — was the material embodiment of the expedition’s message.

National reach and context

BBC News online reaches over 20 million unique visitors monthly in the UK alone. Coverage on BBC News on World Environment Day 2023 placed BBC’s home-build kit in front of a mass audience at exactly the moment when public interest in practical sustainability was at a 2023 peak. The article ran alongside World Environment Day coverage from around the world — but unlike most of that coverage, it was about something someone could actually do. Build a bamboo bike. Ride it 3,000 miles. Change what a bicycle means.

[Featured image: [NEEDS IMAGE] — supply BBC News article image (ichef.bbci.co.uk) or Kate Strong departure photo for CDN upload]

Read the full BBC News article →