Metro: Wood wars — could bamboo branch out and revolutionise construction?

In its early years, Bamboo Bicycle Club was featured in Metro, the UK's largest free daily commuter newspaper, as part of a wider look at bamboo as a building and manufacturing material — under the banner question "Wood wars: could bamboo branch out and revolutionise construction?"

The feature placed our East London workshop alongside a broader story about bamboo's appeal as a fast-growing, renewable material: it regrows in a few years rather than the decades hardwoods need, and it locks up carbon as it grows. We were cited as a working example of what people can make with it by hand — anyone can come to a Bamboo Bicycle Club workshop and build their own bespoke bamboo bike frame, no prior experience needed.

Being featured in a free commuter paper mattered for reach: it put bamboo bikes in front of people who weren't already looking for them — the kind of passive discovery that turns a niche idea into a familiar one.

Read more about Metro at metro.co.uk.