That anyone — given the right tools and a bit of belief — can build a bicycle. Most people who build with us have never built one before. We teach in London, Amersfoort and Toulouse.
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.
Build a bike
Public workshops in London, Amersfoort and Toulouse, and home-build kits shipped to 45 countries.
In 2012, design engineers James Marr and Ian McMillan opened a small workshop in Hackney Wick with a single goal: prove that anyone can build a bicycle frame. They had spent two years refining the method in a workshop in Brecon, in the Welsh hills. They started with bamboo — a fast-growing grass 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.
I believe we should all be able to modify, create and improve everything we own, giving us agency over both a product’s function and aesthetic.
James Marr, Founder — Match: Design & Sport catalogue, GrandPalaisRmn, 2024
James Marr at the bench — fourteen years on, he still teaches.
The journey
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.
2012
a workshop in hackney
Design engineers James Marr and Ian McMillan open what the Guardian calls the UK’s first bamboo bike workshop, in Hackney Wick. They never sell a finished bicycle — they teach people to build their own.
2014
the kits travel
Within two years, home-build kits are shipping across Europe and beyond, and the club takes a stand in RideLondon FreeCycle’s Leadenhall Market festival zone that August. The UN Environment Programme chooses a Bamboo Bicycle Club bike to illustrate UN-REDD’s REDD+ Sourcebook.
2015
the design museum
Cycle Revolution at the Design Museum exhibits a Bamboo Bicycle Club aero frame, in a show seen by more than 70,000 people between November 2015 and June 2016.
2016
a world first, and canes grown for the ride
In April, with Oxford Brookes University, what BikeBiz calls the world’s first bamboo frame with 3D-printed lugs is built live at the Design Museum in eight hours. The GREAT Britain campaign selects the club’s aero bike for Number 10’s Innovation is GREAT showcase in Liverpool. In September the Eden Project cuts 30 canes from its own garden for Kate Rawles’s expedition bike, Woody.
2017
the method travels
A week-long bamboo-bike build at a skill centre in Machakos County, Kenya, delivered with Promoting Africa e.V. through the club’s Munich partners. James leads three days of workshops at the Muzej-Museo Lapidarium in Novigrad, Croatia, and a three-day public build from Eden-grown bamboo at the Eden Project. Bamboo Bicycle Club London Ltd is incorporated to hold the club’s designs and research.
2018
kevin mccloud's green heroes
Selected at Grand Designs Live as one of Kevin McCloud’s Green Heroes for sustainable design.
2018
8,288 miles, no frame failure
Kate Rawles reaches Ushuaia on 16 February 2018 after thirteen months riding the length of the Andes on the frame she built with us — from Eden’s canes. Her book about the ride, The Life Cycle, follows in 2023.
2019
beyond bikes
The club’s Munich workshop hosts Ethiopian designer Abel Hailegiorgis to prototype a folding bamboo wheelchair with the same frame-building technique. He goes on to found Bamboo Labs in Addis Ababa, which now makes bamboo wheelchairs and bikes.
2021
the cycling world takes a proper look
GCN’s film ‘Are Bamboo Bikes Actually Any Good?’ follows Emily Chappell into the workshop.
2022
the show floor
Bamboo Bicycle Club takes a stand at Bespoked, the UK handmade bicycle show, at the Lee Valley VeloPark in October. Cycling UK names the club one of five things to see at the show.
2024
behind the wall, and in paris
A governor asks for accreditation and James designs a bespoke OCN Level 2 course, Workshop Skills and Sustainable Manufacturing. The club’s home-build kit shows in Match: Design & Sport at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris, with a catalogue essay by James; a partnership launches with Urumuri in Rwanda.
2025
the year the work was recognised
Bamboo Mobility Project CIC is incorporated in February and a 2,000 sq ft workshop opens inside HMP Lowdham Grange; the OCN Level 2 course is approved in July. The Financial Times profiles the prison programme; Investec Beyond Business selects Bamboo Bicycle Club from 148 applicants with £24,000; the National Lottery Community Fund backs our Pedal Forward project with £18,000. Lord Timpson publicly endorses the programme.
Now
one engine for change
Four prison sites and a schools programme, funded by the same workshop that teaches anyone to build a bike. A balance bike built by men at HMP Lowdham Grange is on display at the National Justice Museum.
How we're built
a shop and a mission, one engine.
We're a Community Interest Company with a bike shop attached — not a charity with a gift shop. The money flows in one loop.
Member 01
You build a bike.
A frame kit from £375, built by the person who rides it, shipped to 45 countries. We don't sell finished bicycles — our kits and workshops hand over a frame and the skills to finish it. Browse the kits →
Member 02
The margin funds a place.
Every workshop, kit and team build we run funds accredited skills courses in prisons and our schools programme.
Member 03 · bonded
Somebody gets a way forward.
90%+ of learners complete the course. In Build to Bond, the balance bike they build goes home to their own child.
Bamboo Mobility Project CIC · 16257348 — programmes, education and community delivery · Bamboo Bicycle Club London Ltd · 10809302 — the workshop, kits and designs · Argall Works, Leyton, London E10 · info@bamboobicycleclub.org
Want to work with us? We take on instructors, freelancers and workshop volunteers as the work allows — tell us what you'd bring: info@bamboobicycleclub.org
What we stand for
three things we won't compromise.
01
craft over consumption
A bike you build yourself is a bike you never throw away. We teach making, not buying.
Architect Taro Tsuruta has ridden the frame he built for ten years. It is still his daily bike.
02
grown, not mined
Bamboo regrows from the same root in 3–5 years. Sustainability is the material, not the marketing.
Our bamboo tubing has been tested to BS ISO 22157:2019 at Swansea University — 84.3 MPa ultimate tensile, comparable to mild steel at a fraction of the weight.
03
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.
Jon built his own road frame from a home kit with the use of one hand. In his words: ‘It was a real challenge for me as I only have the use of 1 hand. The end product has a great sense of achievement.’
Real people, real builds
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. Built one yourself? Send us the story: info@bamboobicycleclub.org
Four films from the workshop and the prison programme. Press play — no autoplay, no sound until you ask.
Building a frame at home, start to finishThe full build of a bamboo gravel frame, from tubes to first ride · 3 min 43 sBuild to Bond at HMP Lowdham GrangeThe prison programme, subtitled · 3 min 19 sThe Bamboo Bicycle Club storyRiding through London, building frames in the workshop, makers around the world · 30 sHands, tubes and a jigCutting, shaping and binding bamboo into a frame · 38 s
Build a bike in London, bring a programme to your school or college, or run Build to Bond inside your establishment. 90%+ completion across four UK prison sites, at different delivery stages.
ten years
expedition
everyday
access
first build
everyday
first build
the method travels
