Balance Bike Flax Kit with Resins
Our most sustainable and most affordable balance bike: bamboo tubes joined with natural flax fibre and resin — no metal lugs, no carbon, no plastic shop bike. It's the same first bike a parent builds for their own child on our prison programme, so the one you make at home helps fund a place for a family to be reunited.
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1-year kit warranty · 14-day returns on unopened kits · ships in ~2 weeks
Build your own — and help fund a place on our Build to Bond prison programme.
- No power tools required — just basic hand tools
- Illustrated manual + 15+ hours of step-by-step video
- Lifetime community of 4,000+ builders for support
- Cycle to Work accepted — save through salary sacrifice
everything but the parts you already own.
Our simplest kit: bamboo, flax and resin — no lugs. Wheels, saddle, bars and headset come as the balance bike components pack.
- 1 bamboo setcut to length
- 2 head tube, seat sleeve and dropouts
- 3 a metre of flax fibre
- 4 tacking glueto hold the joints while you wrap
- 5 epoxy bio-resinwith the resin option
Spares included. If anything in the box is not right, we replace it.
the build, honestly.
Bamboo, flax and resin, wrapped by hand. Everything you cut and bond is in the box; the components pack bolts on at the end.
no customs bill at the door
The price at checkout is the price the kit costs you. We pay the import duty and tax before it ships, so the courier has nothing to collect when it arrives.
Packed by hand and shipped twice a week, tracked all the way. Kits have reached 45 countries.
your build helps fund accredited skills courses — inside prisons and schools.
complete your build, the easy way.
The kit is the frame. Add a matched component pack — fork, wheels, groupset, finishing kit — and you're ride-ready. Or source parts from any bike shop; your frame fits all major groupsets.
Everything to build the bamboo balance bike.
Bars, wheels, drivetrain and finishing kit, chosen for your build.
A complete, one-of-a-kind balance bike — built by you.
Add the component packPrefer to choose your own parts? Skip the pack — the frame works with any standard groupset, and we'll advise.
spec — BS ISO 22157:2019 · tensile 84.3 MPa · Swansea University
in the kit
Heat-treated Moso bamboo tubes (with spares), a full-size frame blueprint, a plywood alignment jig, the CNC metal parts that the steering, cranks and wheels bolt to (head tube, bottom-bracket shell and dropouts), flax fibre (the reinforcing fibre you wrap each joint with), two-part epoxy resin, and an illustrated manual plus 15+ hours of step-by-step video tutorials.
you'll add
Fork, wheels, groupset, handlebars, saddle and finishing components. Grab a complete component pack from us, or source parts from any bike shop.
you've got this — and we've got you
you can't really ruin it
The glue is slow and adjustable, each joint wrap is additive (more = stronger), and a cured joint simply sands back to shape. The kit even ships with spare bamboo — at no single point is a mistake permanent.
tools you'll need
- Hacksaw
- Files
- Sandpaper
- Tape measure
- A rounded wood file
- Electrical & masking tape
- A 1200×600mm board
- No power tools needed
you're never on your own
Stuck mid-build? Get help fast through our builder forum, step-by-step YouTube videos, WhatsApp and email. Most of our builders start with zero experience.
caring for your frame
Seal the bamboo and store it indoors; dry it after wet rides. A frame you built — and understand — is one you can maintain and repair yourself for years.
warranty, returns & shipping
- 1-year warranty on the kit materials
- Full refund within 14 days on unopened, unused kits
- Ships in ~2 weeks · UK £12 · Europe £25 · USA £45 · rest of world £75
See a frame come together.
The same hand-build every kit follows — start to finish, on camera.
Taps into 'the IKEA effect' — that extra bit of affection people reserve for objects they put together themselves.
Financial Times
rated by the builders who made one
The flax finish is gorgeous — every time I look at it I smile. And I built it myself.
Balance Flax Builder, Home kit buildbefore you build.
What age and size is this for?
Designed for children roughly aged 2–5, as a balance (pedal-free) first bike. Fit depends on your child's inside-leg measurement more than age — send us their height and inside leg and we'll confirm it suits them.
Is it light enough for a sized by inside leg to handle?
Bamboo is naturally light and the balance frame is small, so it's made to be manageable for little legs. We don't want to publish a weight we haven't measured — we'll share the exact finished weight on request.
Why choose flax over the lugged balance bike?
Two reasons: it's greener and cheaper. The flax kit joins the bamboo with natural plant fibre and resin instead of metal or 3D-printed lugs — so it's 100% natural materials (bamboo and flax, no carbon), the most sustainable build we make, and our most affordable. The lugged version uses metal/printed lug joints, which some builders prefer for the look and a slightly more guided build. Both make the same pedal-free first bike.
How hard is the build, and how long does it take?
It's our simplest kit — around 10–15 hours, comfortably spread over a weekend or two. No power tools: just basic hand tools (hacksaw, files, sandpaper, tape) and a work surface. You bond the bamboo tubes with epoxy and wrap each joint in flax fibre. Most builders start with zero experience, and our community of 4,000+ can help if you get stuck.
How strong is the finished frame?
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