U.S. Bike Designer Partners with Zambians to Build Bamboo Bikes

On the outskirts of Lusaka, Zambia, next year’s crop of bicycles is being watered by Benjamin Banda.”We planted this bamboo last year,” he says, “and now the stems are taller than me. When it’s ready we’ll cut it, cure it and then turn it into frames.”

Mr Banda, is the caretaker for Zambikes, a company set up by two Californians and two Zambians which aimed to build bikes tough enough to handle the local terrain.

– BBC

At the same time, Craig Calfee, a bike designer based in Santa-Cruz was experimenting with bamboo as a frame for bikes. Currently, the bikes are manufactured in developing countries and then are shipped to the United States, where they’re sold for up to $900.

The manufacturers he works with are called Bamborrseros. Three groups in Ghana have begun active production, with partnerships on the way with Zambikes, as well as other manufacturers in Cambodia, El Salvador, Mexico, the Philippines, and Uganda.