Welcome to the Bamboo Bicycle Club

Welcome to the Bamboo Bicycle Club

At the Bamboo Bicycle Club, we don’t just sell bikes; we help people build them. Founded by James Marr in the creative heart of East London, our club has evolved into a vibrant community of cycling enthusiasts and DIY advocates. We're a movement that celebrates the spirit of innovation and sustainability in cycling. We operate workshops across Europe and ship our kits worldwide.

Our Philosophy: Sustainable Cycling for Everyone

We believe that cycling can be more than just a mode of transportation; creating something with your own hands and then riding it offers a unique experience like no other. Building anything gives you a distinctive experience, an understanding of materials, functionality, and an appreciation for your own skills.

Build, Ride, Empower

We’ve spent many years refining and perfecting our build technique with one clear goal: to make the building experience as accessible as possible to people of all ages and abilities. As an open-source community, we have learned and shared skills with thousands of builders and have been able to pass this on through our workshops and home-build kits.

Why Bamboo?

We started using bamboo to create bikes as it is an interesting engineering material that is underutilized. With over 1,500 species, it can be grown almost anywhere in the world, making it both accessible and sustainable for builders everywhere. It also has many qualities that make it ideal for bicycle construction; it naturally forms aerodynamic tubes in varied diameters, has a high weight-to-strength ratio, and possesses unique vibration-dampening characteristics. Bamboo also has a negative carbon footprint, as it absorbs 30% more CO2 than traditional timber, making it one of the key materials in climate change mitigation. However, bamboo can be difficult to join due to its wall thickness and structure.

Our Community: More Than Just Builders

Our community stretches across the world. We have shipped our kits to 42 different countries and collaborated with communities, creating pop-up workshops in many countries outside of the UK. We have also conducted team-building sessions and talks across Europe. We have an active community on social media with help forums for builders and a Strava ride group.

Innovation at the Core

We invest the majority of our profits into innovation and prototyping. We support university students and research projects. We've worked with tmany universities to better understand how bamboo performs in different environments, how to create connections for bamboo, and developing e-bikes with motors integrated into the bamboo. Our projects include cargo bikes for agricultural projects in Africa, bamboo structure design, developing wheelchairs using bamboo, and we worked with the UN to develop communication masks for remote communities. We’re always happy to support projects and offer our advice for free, so get in touch.

Join the Movement

If you're interested in building a bike, our advice would be to think about it or get in touch to plan it. The better the plan, the better the bike. We’ve helped thousands of people, so get in touch if you have a unique custom build or if you would like to try our easy-build lugged kits. One thing we can confidently say is it’s a unique experience and creates a new interaction every time you ride, with a common question: "Is that bamboo? Where did you get it from?" It’s always great to say, "I built it!"

Timeline since 2012

First Workshop in Hackney Wick

2012

First Workshop

Founded in 2012 by James Marr, The Bamboo Bicycle Club in Hackney Wick, London Offering expert-led workshops.

New Workshop and Updated Custom Tools

2013

Expanded to new workshop and press collaborations

  • New Workshop to accommodate upto 8 frame builders.
  • New alumnium jig designed for bamboo bike production
  • First Bamboo MTB
  • Shot film with filmmaker John Stow
  • Education Projects, Clothing, Home Build Kit, Crossing Continets

    2014

    Expansion of Product Line

  • School project with Latymer school, go on to work with schools across Europe.
  •  Launch of clothing range
  • Launch of home build kit first kit going on to ship to 45 countries
  • Design and development of bamboo mudguards
  • First world tour on hand made bamboo bike, Tom and Nicky travel from London to Sinagpore.
  •  Build of First bamboo BMX
  • pop-up workshop abroad in Munich, the club pop-up in Sweden, Netherlands, France, USA and Croatia
  • First fatbike build
  • Aero Bike, London Design Museum build and feature, New bamboo Beer.

    2015

    New Aerobike and new Models

      

  • First beach cruiser
  • First Tandem bike build
  • Development of new aerobike using split tubing, sub 700g frame
  • First water bike
  • Brewed our first bamboo beer
  • Developed a balance bike kit
  • Built a bamboo frame for exhibition in the Design Museum London
  • 3d printed lugs, collaborations with Great British Campaign and Kevin Mcloud.

    2016

    3d printed bikes

      

  • Developed first cargo with UCL university.
  • World's First 3D Printed Bamboo Bike, collaboration with Oxford Brookes University, & Design Museum
  • First Bamboo Ebike.
  • Collaboration with Grand Designs and Kevin Mcloud.
  • Setup design programme for Primary schools
  • Collaboration with Great British campaign showcasing innovation in design
  • Collaboration with Kate Rawles and Eden project to create the lowest carbon footprint.
  • Cargo bikes for Africa with UCL, moving to a new workshop

    2017

    Cargo bikes and Munich Workshop

  • Setup workshop in Munich, Germany.
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  • First Bulliet style cargo bike.
  • Workshop pop up the Eden project and participate in sportive.
  • Setup bike hire scheme with Hilton Hotel with staff building bikes for hire.
  • Move workshop to much larger space in Canning town London.
  • Folding Bike, Wheelchair Google Pop-up

    2018

    Folding bike, Workshops abroad bamboo wheelchair

      

  • First folding bike build in Collboration with Queen Mary university
  • Workshop in Kenya & bamboo wheelchair
  • Launch of modular dropout to create a universal bike frame for all setups
  • Tour de sands, 10 bamboo bikes tour around Italy for charity.
  • Pop-up with Google in Regents street
  • First bamboo tall bike
  • School projects, Recumbent Bike, Bamboo Artitecture project with Article 25

    2019

    New designs and Dog joins the workshop

      

  • First bamboo Recumbent bike.
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  • Betty the dog joins the workshop.
  • Develop a single tube of bamboo design with no glue needed and build with schools in the UK.
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  • Work with Article 25 to build bamboo pavilion architecture design.
  • Open Bamboo Bicycle Club Amersfoort.
  • Lug kits launched cutting time by 90%, cargo bike

    2020

    New Gravel bike, Carbon lugs, cargo Bike

  • Workshop with King University to create an engineering build programme.
  • Prototype of lugged aluminium lugs.
  • Prototype of Carbon lugs and test build.
  • Build of bespoke Gravel frame with Grus with Cyclist magazine Collaboration to create ultimate gravel bike.
  • Began developing utility cargo bike.