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A bamboo bicycle can take over a week to make by hand
By Kieron Humphrey~BBC News
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.
Co-founder Vaughn Spethmann, 24, recalls how it all started with a game of football.
 Bamboo is the fastest growing woody plant in the world |
“We were here on a university field trip and we organized a match against some locals. Afterwards we asked them what they did, and they said: ‘Nothing’. They didn’t have jobs.
“So we decided to come up with a business which would be a source of employment and provide a useful product.”
That product was the rugged, bright yellow Zambike, assembled at the firm’s smart red-brick workshop set in sun-browned farmland.
Other projects followed as the mechanics’ skills improved: a sturdy cargo bike, a bike trailer and a bike-drawn “zambulance”, now in use at 10 clinics around Lusaka.
Good vibrations
Meanwhile Santa Cruz-based bike designer Craig Calfee was experimenting with bamboo as a material for bike frames.
His prototypes proved that the strength and lightness of the plant made it a great substitute for metal.
As a bonus it had excellent vibration-dampening properties, making it comfortable for riding over long distances.
It was eye-catching too – Mr Calfee’s stand was besieged when he unveiled his first bamboo frame at a bike show.
 The bicycles are being targeted at the American market |
Mr Calfee hatched a plan to manufacture the frames in developing countries, distribute them in the US and share the profits.
He had already set up a workshop in Accra, Ghana, and started looking for more bike producers, nicknamed “bambooseros”.
The industry telegraph started humming and soon he was talking to Zambikes.
“We were so excited,” says Mr Spethmann. “The thought of Zambian-made products being sold in the USA. That just doesn’t happen.”
There are many reasons why it’s so unusual: capital is difficult to raise in Zambia; tools and raw materials – if available – are expensive; skilled labour is in short supply; and bureaucracy isn’t.
