Flavio Deslandes - Building greener bicycles using bamboo
Flavio Deslandes bamboo bicycles - Click above for an image gallery
Bamboo is an excellent building material. As the fastest growing plant in the world, the long, thin, lightweight stalks of bamboo are useful for a variety of applications, apparently including bicycle frames. Flavio Costa Leão Deslandes, a Brazilian Industrial Designer based in Denmark, started making bicycles out of bamboo back in 1995 and received a European EN14764 certification for his bamboo-framed bikes in 2008. Says the designer:
Bamboo is nature's own organic tube structure. I have always believed that this fine material has a great potential. The challenge to make it work has kept me going. My motivation was always the opportunity to connect modern design with natural materials. The idea to make this connection in a bicycle is logical if you think about it: Biking is a very energy effective way of transportation. And combining a sustainable material as bamboo with energy free mobility feels quite right.Currently, Flavio offers three separate models made with frame tubes of bamboo with aluminum and composite lugs: the BambooCity, BambooCityMountain and BambooCity2. The handmade bikes don't come cheap – the least expensive version going for a whopping 3,800 euros ($5,142 at current exchange rates).
Gallery: Flavio Deslandes bamboo bicycles
[Source: Flavio Deslandes via Gizmag]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ben 9:09AM (5/20/2009)
There are even US bamboo bicycle frame makers.
http://www.calfeedesign.com/Bamboomtn.htm
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John 9:33AM (5/20/2009)
Now bikes aren't green enough and we need to do better? This obsession with "green" has become a religion. Pass the barf bag.
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David Robison 11:58AM (5/20/2009)
And at that price, it's not going to make a dent in the metals market. Narcissism masquerading as green.
jharlan 10:16AM (5/20/2009)
Right on John! The only sane reason to use bamboo is if it were lighter, cheaper, and stronger than titanium. It's another case of symbolism way over substance.
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Mattias 11:15AM (5/20/2009)
Given the energy used to produce or recycle aluminum, you could probably make more than one steel frame from the energy used for the aluminum lugs alone. So this does not qualify as green.
Tom Ritchey, I love your early 1990s steel frames.
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chris 1:29PM (5/20/2009)
Bamboo is actually an ideal material for bike frames - it provides light weight and an ideal balance of rigidity and compliance. These are the same factors that make carbon fiber such a perfect material. Calfee's bamboo bikes have the added benefit of being really beautiful, and from all accounts, provide an excellent ride.
Nothing narcissistic about it, really.
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chris 1:34PM (5/20/2009)
Also, if you go to http://www.bamboosero.com/index.html, you will see that bamboo bikes are providing amazing opportunities and benefits in developing nations, far beyond anything we may or may not perceive in the US/Europe.
Treehugger 2:24PM (5/20/2009)
I don't really understand the motovation behind this, look the bamboos are only 3 tubes of the whole things, most of the material used in a bike is not for the frame. A bike weight 24 pounds and only 5 pounds are for the frame. So this is no more than a distraction, there is no opportunity behind this for emerging countries unless you show them how to make wheel, components, chain, saddle, cables with bamboo.
Asides the bike is quite beautiful, so the look and eventually the damping properties of bamboo are interesting but certainly not the saving in energy or whatever green benefit you might think of
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Andy 7:07PM (5/20/2009)
How could bamboo be stiff enough for a bike frame? I bet it twists a lot and makes for an exhausting ride. And if the ride exhausts you, you'll end up taking the car.
I am happy seeing bamboo getting attention though. There no doubt are many unexplored good uses. I do doubt this is one of them.
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Rick 2:34PM (5/22/2009)
I'd trust alloy or aluminum for a frame than I would any wood, much less bamboo. Good luck going up and down sidewalk curbs after a while.
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