Evening Standard: Get on your bamboo bicycle — after you've made it yourself
Evening Standard journalist Susannah Butter takes on the challenge of building her own bamboo bicycle at home.
It's one of the loveliest commutes I've ever done. Not only is London looking at its finest, with flashes of sunshine sparkling on the Serpentine, but the bicycle I am on is a pleasure to pedal. It's light, responsive and, best of all, I built it myself.
At the traffic lights my steed is eyed up by everyone, for as well as being a product of my own fair hand, it is made of bamboo.
The trend to build your own bike crept up on me. Then I came across the Bamboo Bicycle Club, and somehow they convinced me, the most DIY-challenged person I know, to build a bike out of sticks.
James Marr, the co-founder, was encouraging. "I'll send you a home-build bike-in-a-box. All you need is a drill," he said. "If you can deal with Ikea flatpack, you can do this. It's a two-day job."
The Bamboo Bicycle Club was started by Marr and his friend Ian McMillan, both engineers. After many a pleasant evening messing around with bike parts they decided they wanted to share the joy of making your own sustainable transport and do their bit to revive Britain's manufacturing scene.
The bamboo thing isn't as odd as it sounds. This material is more than the chosen sustenance of pandas, and easier to shape into a frame than metal. In the 1890s, when British bike manufacturing was at a high, it was popular for its flexibility, natural resistance and toughness — it has higher in-tension strength than steel.
"It's faster than my existing road bike and glides over potholes — bamboo dampens their effect. When I came to lock it up I was terrified — after putting so many hours into this dream machine, losing it would be a devastating blow."
— Susannah Butter, Evening Standard
To my disbelief the bike held up for the 7.4-mile journey to work.
"Not only do I have a new bike I will get miles of use from, but every time I ride it I will remember the satisfaction of having made it myself."
— Susannah Butter, Evening Standard
Originally published: London Evening Standard, 19 June 2014
Author: Susannah Butter
Original article: Read on Evening Standard