It started with one frame and a stubborn idea.
That anyone — given the right tools and a bit of belief — can build a bicycle. Fourteen years on, that idea is changing lives.
We believe building things is powerful.
Whether you want to build a bike, run a programme, or back the mission — there's a door for you.
In 2012, design engineers James Marr and Ian McMillan opened a small workshop in Hackney with a single goal: prove that anyone can build a bicycle frame. They started with bamboo — a grass with the tensile strength of steel that you can shape with hand tools.
What began as a maker's hobby became something bigger. Today the same craft runs inside prisons, schools and community workshops — turning a bike into a route to skills, confidence and a second chance.
If we want people to choose sustainable options, we need to offer something better than what polluting products can be.
— James Marr, Founder
Fourteen years, one through-line.
Every chapter widened who gets to build — and the mission grew naturally out of the craft, not bolted on beside it.
A workshop in Hackney
Design engineers James Marr and Ian McMillan open the UK's first bamboo bike workshop. Within months, hundreds of people are building their own frames.
The Design Museum, and kits worldwide
Featured in the Cycle Revolution exhibition at London's Design Museum. The home-build kit ships internationally — builders make frames at their kitchen tables, backed by video tutorials.
Kevin McCloud's Green Heroes
Selected at Grand Designs Live, ExCeL London, as one of Kevin McCloud's Green Heroes for sustainable design.
A social enterprise is born
Our social mission takes formal shape — the foundations of Bamboo Mobility Project CIC, our community-interest arm delivering accredited courses in prisons and schools.
Build to Bond, and a breakthrough year
Our accredited frame-building course runs inside prisons, with the most engaged learners building a balance bike for their own child. The Financial Times profiles the work and the Prisons Minister names it directly; the Investec Beyond Business award follows.
One engine for change
The shop and the mission run as one Community Interest Company — where every build helps fund a place on an accredited skills course.
A shop and a mission, one engine.
We're a Community Interest Company, not a charity with a gift shop or a brand with a cause bolted on. The money flows in one loop.
Bamboo Mobility Project CIC · Reg 16257348
The bike was the first thing I ever made with my own hands. When my daughter rode it on family visit day, I felt like a dad again.
— A Build to Bond makerEvery build funds a place to learn.
We're not a bike shop with a charity attached. The workshops fund the mission — directly.
Three things we won't compromise.
Whether you want to build a bike, run a programme, or back the mission — there's a door for you.
Craft over consumption
A bike you build yourself is a bike you never throw away. We teach making, not buying.
Grown, not mined
Bamboo regrows in 3–5 years and recycles fully. Sustainability is the material, not the marketing.
Open to everyone
From weekend workshops to prisons and schools, our goal is to put making within reach of people who'd never otherwise get the chance.
Every bike is somebody's story.
From first-time makers to 8,000-mile expeditions — a few of the people who've built with us.
RehabilitationFathers build a bamboo balance bike for the child waiting at home — the accredited prison course the Financial Times came to see.
Epic journeyKate Rawles built her own bamboo frame, named it Woody, and rode it the length of the Andes.
EngineeringMasters engineers ran finite-element analysis on bamboo, then built a cargo frame rated to carry 150kg.
RecognitionChosen as one of four winners from a record 148 applicants — £24,000 and mentorship from Investec.
CorporateFour Seasons managers built a bamboo bike in an afternoon, then donated it to a rider in Brixton.
SustainabilityManish ran the numbers, built a bamboo gravel bike, and rode it London to Brighton — carbon stored, not emitted.
Be part of the next chapter.
Whether you want to build a bike, run a programme, or back the mission — there's a door for you.
One club, many ways in.
Whether you fund the work, teach with it, lead a team or just want to build — here's your way in.
See our social impact
Build to Bond rehabilitation, school STEM programmes, and a route into green careers — the difference your support makes.
Explore our impact →
STEM through making
Curriculum-linked bamboo-build projects that teach materials science, sustainability and engineering by hand.
Schools & education →
A team day that gives back
Your team builds a real bamboo bike together — often donated to a local cycling charity afterwards.
Team building →
Kits & home workshops
Join a workshop or take home a build kit — no experience needed. Most builders have never made anything before.
Workshops & kits →