Building bikes. Rebuilding lives.
Inside prisons and schools, the craft that builds a bike also builds the family ties that help people not return.
Four ways a build changes a life.
Our model — the logic behind the stories.
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Pride of authorship
Building something real with your own hands rebuilds self-worth — what the FT called "the IKEA effect".
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Family ties
A father builds a balance bike for his child — and the bond grows.
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Accredited learning
A recognised OCN Level 1 & 2 qualification in sustainable manufacturing, earned hands-on.
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Sustainable self-delivery
Learners train as instructors and frames are reused cohort to cohort — affordable and circular.
Six weeks on the tools.
Inside HMP Lowdham Grange — a Category-B men's prison in Nottinghamshire — we've built a 2,000 sq ft workshop where learners take a six-week, OCN-accredited course: from workshop safety and material science through frame construction, mechanics and finishing.
They earn an OCN Level 2 accreditation in sustainable design and manufacturing. Trusted learners are trained as instructors and help deliver the course. In the final week, frames are taken apart so the materials serve the next cohort — which is also what keeps it affordable.
A bike that goes home.
The most engaged participants progress to Build to Bond — building a children's bamboo balance bike to gift to their own son, daughter, niece or nephew. That bike they keep. The bike goes home; the father stays inside.
It's built on the evidence that maintaining family contact is one of the strongest predictors of reduced reoffending — people who keep close family ties while in prison are 39% less likely to reoffend (Lord Farmer Review, 2017).
Watching the pride on a father's face when he presents a bike to his child is something special.
— Sally Allsopp, Industries ManagerNow inside three prisons — and growing.
Live at one prison, rolling out to two more — delivered with the prison teams.
HMP Lowdham Grange · HMP Lindholme · HMP Foston Hall
In partnership with HM Prison & Probation Service
From prisons to Patagonia.
The same craft shows up on epic journeys, in classrooms and in boardrooms — across 36 countries.
PrisonInside HMP Lowdham Grange, fathers build a bamboo balance bike for the child waiting at home.
PressThe FT on Build to Bond at HMP Lowdham Grange — and public backing from Prisons Minister James Timpson.
PressInside Time — read in every prison in the UK — on the Build to Bond workshop at HMP Lowdham Grange.
Epic journeyKate Rawles rode a BBC-built bamboo bike the length of South America for The Life Cycle.
Epic journeyThe 2 by Bamboo team crossed six countries on home-built bamboo bikes for charity.
Epic journeyTom and Nicky rode bamboo bikes across the world, raising funds for MSF.
EducationLeading the national conversation on bamboo's future in engineering and design.
EducationMasters students engineered a bamboo e-cargo bike to carry 150kg.
GlobalSkills that stay behind — communities building and maintaining their own bamboo bikes.
GlobalA UK–Africa bamboo bicycle exchange at the Birmingham festival.
InclusionJon's story of determination and craft — proof anyone can build.
ExhibitionBuilt live at London's Design Museum with Oxford Brookes University — every joint 3D-printed.
YouthIn Waltham Forest, young people facing exclusion built a bike brand and pitched it to an investor.
EnvironmentDhruv Boruah rode a BBC bamboo bike to pull plastic from the Thames and beyond.
MobilityPrototyped with our Munich workshop and Abel Hailegiorgis of Bamboo Labs, Ethiopia — partner-led mobility.
Skills that open doors.
In early 2026, eight in ten of the people we reached were young people and learners outside the justice system. Our Make Engineers programmes run in schools, colleges and universities across the UK — designed to help schools evidence Gatsby Benchmarks 4 and 5.
Project Zero (Waltham Forest) · WE Job Box × Aston University · UCL · Oxford Brookes · Swansea University · London South Bank University · Camden Council · Bradfield College
One build, three routes.
The same six-week build opens three doors — education, employment and rehabilitation.
Education
OCN-accredited Level 1 & 2 training in sustainable manufacturing — a nationally recognised qualification, earned hands-on.
Employment
Routes into sustainable transport, manufacturing and composites — with growing employer links and support into work on release.
Rehabilitation
Therapeutic, focused making builds patience and resilience — and strengthens family connection through Build to Bond.
Lord Timpson · Prisons MinisterInnovative projects, such as Build to Bond, support rehabilitation and help people leave prison as better citizens.
Impact you can feel in the material.
Bamboo is rapidly renewable, grown not mined, and stores carbon as it grows. Inside our prison workshops frames are reused cohort to cohort — real circularity — and every frame is strength-tested at Swansea University to BS ISO 22157.
Three ways to be part of it.
Every route — buying, partnering or funding — creates measurable change.
Build or own a bike
Book a workshop or buy a kit. Every purchase helps fund our prison and education programmes.
Shop & book →
Work with us
Programmes for prisons, schools and colleges. OCN Level 2 accredited, with a self-delivery model for prisons.
Explore partnerships →
Fund or champion
Fund a cohort, offer placements, or champion our work. As a CIC, every £1 is reinvested into prison and school places.
Talk to us →Reported and backed.
Lord James Timpson, UK Prisons Minister · Financial Times, September 2025Finding employment after release reduces the chance of reoffending significantly.
Ruth Leas, CEO, Investec Bank · Investec Beyond Business 2025A truly inspiring cohort, delivering meaningful impact in their communities.
Build to Bond is supported by The National Lottery Community Fund and Investec Beyond Business.
Honest about the evidence.
The completion and engagement figures here come from our own impact assessment; the reoffending and cost figures are external research, clearly labelled — we don't present them as our own results. We protect every participant's identity. We're working toward an independent evaluation and an MoJ Justice Data Lab submission, with pre/post outcome capture beginning at our Camden programme in 2026.
Help us fund the next cohort.
Every bike built is a skill learned and a way forward.
See the work behind the numbers
Every frame starts as raw bamboo and a few hand tools — in our workshops, schools and prison programmes.