BikeRadar: Bamboo Bicycle Club first ride video

“It would be churlish to try and measure a bike like this against a state of the art carbon machine — that’s not the point of one of these rides. Forget the tiny flaws and rough look to the build — that’s a huge part of the charm.” — Gregor MacGregor, BikeRadar

On 29 January 2015, BikeRadar — the UK’s largest cycling website — published its first ride video of a Bamboo Bicycle Club frame. Written by Communities Editor Gregor MacGregor and ridden on camera by BikeRadar’s Joe Norledge, this was BBC’s first major coverage in the professional cycling media — less than two and a half years after the company launched.

The first ride

BikeRadar received a BBC frame and put it through its standard first ride format: the same process applied to carbon race bikes, aluminium commuters, and titanium tourers. MacGregor’s written introduction was clear about the evaluation frame: this is not a precision racing tool and should not be reviewed as one. The question was how it felt to ride something handmade from a natural material, by someone who had never built a frame before.

The answer, on video, was: smooth, characterful, and worth stopping to examine. Joe Norledge rode the frame on roads and described the experience to camera. The vibration-damping properties of bamboo — which dissipate road buzz more effectively than steel or aluminium — were immediately noticeable. The frame felt purposeful despite its unconventional origins.

“To get one of these bamboo beauties you go on a two-day course to make your own — although home-build kits are now available too.” — Gregor MacGregor, BikeRadar

The timing

January 2015 was a pivotal moment for BBC. The company had launched in late 2012, spent 2013 establishing the workshop, and in 2014 began developing home-build kits for customers who couldn’t reach London. BikeRadar’s first ride video was published at exactly the moment the kits became available — and MacGregor’s piece noted their existence, introducing the concept to BikeRadar’s audience of serious cyclists for the first time.

MacGregor’s editorial framing — “forget the tiny flaws, that’s a huge part of the charm” — was borrowed and referenced by dozens of subsequent reviews. It became shorthand for the correct way to evaluate a handmade bamboo bike: not against a factory standard, but on its own terms as a personal object. BikeRadar set this standard in January 2015; the cycling press has followed it ever since.

Historic significance

This was BBC’s first BikeRadar appearance. The publication went on to cover BBC multiple times over the following decade: the lugged frame innovation (Bikerumor), the home-build road bike (road.cc), the gravel build, and the e-cargo bike. Each subsequent piece of cycling media coverage traced a lineage back to this first ride video and MacGregor’s precise, honest evaluation of what a handmade bamboo bike actually is.

Read the full article on BikeRadar →