Bicycles Built From Grass

Posted on January 20, 2009 by Derek Markham in Sports+Recreation

OK, so it’s not made out of the kind of grass you have in your yard, but bamboo is in the grass family. The bamboo plant is an amazing renewable resource, the fastest growing woody plant in the world. Bamboo grows in places as diverse as the Himalayas, Australia, East Asia, and South America, and there about a thousand different species worldwide. It’s made into flooring, houses, furniture, cutting boards, skateboards, snowboards, clothing, even bicycles.

Whether you ride mountain, road, or cross, Calfee Design has you covered. The company, based in California, has been building bamboo bikes since 1995, but only for friends and family. In 2005, Calfee began production of bamboo models for sale, and now offers three different models of frames, with road, triathlon, and cross geometries, as well as a mountain bike frame.

The lugs are made of hemp fiber, and the bamboo is coated with a polyurethane sealant. The mountain bike frame takes an 80 mm travel suspension fork, and if you want to go big, it’ll fit 29″ tires. They’re not cheap, but it’s a serious bicycle, not a stock bike from the dealer. Each one is built to order, and comes with a 10 year warranty.

Calfee Design won the Peoples’ Choice Award at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, and claims that “If there were an award for “Bicycle with lowest carbon footprint” (least amount of carbon dioxide emissions in the production of the frame), this frame would win, hands down.” Calfee Design is also working on the Bamboo Bikes in the Developing World project, assisting entrepreneurs in the developing world to make their own bicycles out of locally sourced bamboo.

bamboo, bicycles, CalfeeDesign