You may have heard that biking is the most efficient form of transportation. Now there’s a Santa Cruz bicycle maker who’s made the ubiquitous two-wheel transport even greener with a sustainable manufacturing method that’s both elegant and innovative: bamboo-frame bicycles. By controlling the shape of the growing bamboo, he has created a sustainable manufacturing method that creates bike parts that can be fitted together to form a sturdy frame.
As of now, Craig Calfree has only been able to make his bamboo-based bikes to order, but recently he has been experimenting with methods of growing bamboo into pre-formed shapes which will result in a more efficient sustainable manufacturing business. It will also give him the ability to churn out more bikes, and hopefully make them more affordable than the current $2,700 price tag.
Right now Calfree shapes the bamboo by forcing it to grow through barriers that will force the naturally straight-growing plant to conform to the curves needed for a bike frame. Calfree says that the sustainable manufacturing of bamboo is perfect for bikes—it’s both stronger and lighter than most metals and absorbs vibrations from the road much better.
