Build a bike.
Public workshops in London, Amersfoort and Toulouse, and kits to build at home. We don't sell finished bicycles — our kits and workshops hand over a frame and the skills to finish it.
Browse the kits
It started with a frame. And an idea.
Founded in 2012 · Hackney Wick
4,000+ people trained since 2012.
We teach people to build their own bamboo bicycle frames. What began in a London workshop now reaches schools, communities and prisons.
Photo: James Marr teaching at the workshop bench.
Making is the way in. Find yours.
We use bamboo bike-building to give practical skills and a way forward to people locked out of education — in schools before exclusion, and in prisons after.
Schools and colleges.
We've taught in schools since 2014 — a design-and-make programme run in class, taught by us or by your own staff.
See the programmesPrisons.
Two bespoke OCN London Level 2 courses: six-week training and two-week Build to Bond. Neither is Ofqual-regulated.
Explore prison programmesRoutes into resettlement and employment are in development.
Bamboo Mobility Project CIC · 16257348 — programmes, education and community delivery. Bamboo Bicycle Club London Ltd · 10809302 — the workshop, kits and designs.
Two engineers. One workshop.
James Marr and Ian McMillan founded Bamboo Bicycle Club in Hackney Wick in 2012. They had refined the frame-building method in Brecon, Wales.
The idea was simple: teach people to make their own frames. James still teaches. The work now spans public workshops, education and prison programmes.
Read James's full profile“I believe building things is powerful, and can help people progress in their lives.”
James Marr · Inside Time, 17 November 2025.
A small team. Three workshops.
James still teaches every London cohort. Alongside him, a small team runs the workshop and the CIC's programmes, and two partner workshops teach the same method in the Netherlands and France.
In London.
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Chris Barrett
Director of Operations
Turns plans into delivery across our programmes, partners and funding.
Meet Chris -
Liam Mertens
Workshop Manager, London
Keeps the London workshop running: bamboo, jigs, kits and balance bikes.
Meet Liam
Advisers.
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Vicky Mitchell
Employment and enterprise
Advises on employment and enterprise routes for people leaving prison.
Meet Vicky
Partner workshops.
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Tim van Woudenberg
Partner workshop · Amersfoort
Built his first frame with us in London in 2016. Now teaches the method in Amersfoort.
Meet Tim -
Guillaume Denneulin
Partner workshop · Toulouse
Engineer turned bamboo frame builder. Leads our Toulouse workshop from Pinsaguel.
Meet Guillaume
Partner workshops are independently run by their operators, using our method and kit.
CIC directors.
Bamboo Mobility Project CIC (16257348) runs our programmes, education and community work. Its directors are James Marr (since 2025), Chris Barrett (since 2025) and Alexandra Maitland Makgill Crichton (since 2026).
Photos: Chris Barrett at thinkFOUND (Waltham Forest Echo, 2021). Liam Mertens in his studio (his website). Vicky Mitchell (TERRAGRN). Tim van Woudenberg at the workbench (our Instagram). Guillaume Denneulin at his workshop (Concours de Machines).
From the first workshop. To today.
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2012 The first workshop.
James Marr and Ian McMillan open in Hackney Wick: what the Guardian called the UK's first bamboo bike workshop.
Photo: the first workshop. -
2014 The kits travel.
Home-build kits, RideLondon and a BBC bicycle pictured in UN-REDD's REDD+ Sourcebook.
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2015 At the Design Museum.
An aero frame joins Cycle Revolution. The live build follows the next year.
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2016 Making in public.
With Oxford Brookes, a bamboo frame with 3D-printed lugs is built live at the Design Museum. The GREAT Britain showcase and Eden-grown bamboo follow.
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2017–18 The method travels.
A skills-transfer build in Kenya, with Promoting Africa e.V. In 2017: workshops in Novigrad and at Eden, and the Ltd's incorporation.
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2018 Green Heroes.
Selected as one of Kevin McCloud's Green Heroes at Grand Designs Live.
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2018 Kate's journey.
Kate Rawles completes her expedition on 16 February, after thirteen months on the road.
Photo: Woody. -
2019 Beyond bikes.
The Munich workshop hosts Abel Hailegiorgis to prototype a folding bamboo wheelchair. He goes on to found Bamboo Labs.
Photo: the wheelchair prototype. -
2021 On film.
GCN features the club in Are Bamboo Bikes Actually Any Good?
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2022 On the show floor.
Bespoked at Lee Valley VeloPark. Cycling UK names the club among five things to see.
Photo: a Bespoked bike. -
2024 New settings.
Prison-course development, Match: Design & Sport in Paris, and a skills partnership with Urumuri in Rwanda.
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2025 The CIC begins.
The CIC is incorporated. The workshop opens at HMP Lowdham Grange and the training course gains OCN approval. The year also brings FT coverage, Investec Beyond Business, Pedal Forward and Lord Timpson's endorsement.
Photo: the empty Lowdham workshop. -
2026 The work continues.
Four prison sites, at different delivery stages. A Lowdham-built balance bike is displayed at the National Justice Museum.
Photo: a studio balance bike.
Sources: BBC history records; Claims Register and overview deck v45. Checked 17 October 2026.
Learn the craft. Make it your own.
Craft over consumption.
Build a frame and learn how it goes together. Taro's account follows ten years with his own bike.
Grown, not mined.
Bamboo regrows from the same root. We use it to teach practical design and engineering.
Open to everyone.
We want more people to have the chance to make. Jon built a frame from a home kit with the use of one hand.
84.3 MPa bamboo tubing tested at Swansea University to BS ISO 22157:2019.
This is a material test, not certification of a finished bicycle. Source: Swansea testing, published 2023; approved wording, 28 September 2026.
Every bike. Somebody's story.
Taro's ten years.
Read Taro's account of his hand-built bamboo bike.
Read Taro's story
Kate's expedition.
Kate Rawles built Woody on a Bamboo Bicycle Club course, using Eden Project bamboo.
Read Kate's story
Jon's home build.
Jon built his own frame with the use of one hand.
Read Jon's storyMore maker stories
- London to Singapore
- Claire's bike
- From a first build to 10,000 km
- The Design Museum live build
- The original club film
- Manish's ride
- Rhys's build
- Kirui's build
Built one yourself? Tell us about it: info@bamboobicycleclub.org
Photos: Taro, Kate and Jon's own published stories.
See the work. Watch the films.
Four films from our workshops and prison work. Choose a film to play.
Building a frame at home.
From bamboo tubes to a finished frame.
The prison workshop.
A film from HMP Lowdham Grange.
The Bamboo Bicycle Club story.
Workshop life and makers' bicycles.
Hands, tubes and a jig.
Cutting, shaping and binding a frame.
Photos: stills from the films.
What we've built. Since 2012.
4,000+ people trained since 2012.
3,500+ bikes built.
Source: programme and customer records; lifetime figures approved in overview deck v45, 16 October 2026.
90%+ completion across the prison programme.
Source: BBC programme records; approved in overview deck v45, 16 October 2026.
26% measured confidence uplift.
Source: BBC pre/post questionnaire; Claims Register wording checked 17 October 2026. BBC's own evaluation.
22 schools, colleges and universities.
Source: institution records verified 27 August 2026; the named list is on our Education page.
Press coverage.
Featured in more than 60 publications, including the Financial Times, The Guardian and BBC News.
Source: BBC Press Archive; approved 3 October 2026.
See all coverageRecognition and exhibitions.
Design Museum · Musée du Luxembourg, Paris · National Justice Museum · Investec Beyond Business 2025.
Press enquiries, bios and photographs: info@bamboobicycleclub.org
From London. Across borders.
45 countries with our customers.
Source: distinct countries in customer records; approved 7 July 2026 and retained in overview deck v45, 16 October 2026.
Two partner workshops abroad: Amersfoort and Toulouse.
Source: verified workshop record, 6 September 2026.
Four prison sites, at different stages.
- HMP Northumberland — running.
- HMP Lindholme — running.
- HMP Lowdham Grange — installed.
- HMP Foston Hall — installed.
Source: overview deck v45, page 11; owner decision, 16 October 2026.
Be part of the next chapter.
Build your own frame. Bring practical making to your school or college. Explore a prison programme, or talk to us about supporting the work.
Interested in teaching or volunteering? Tell us what you'd bring: info@bamboobicycleclub.org
Photo: a loaded bamboo touring bike on a mountain track; not a programme participant.