Eco-Friendly Bamboo Bicycles.
I was walking through Hoi An today when I came across these bamboo bicycles. I had seen a similar thing a few years back in South America so I was fascinated to see them here on the other side of the World.
BAMBOO BICYLCE
I believe these frames are made by a company called "Viet Bamboo Bike" in Ho Chi Minh City about 600km south of where I am now. It makes perfect sense to use bamboo for a bike frame; It's light, tubular and strong. I mean they use bamboo for scaffolding on high-rises in Asia. What's more as a raw material it is readily available. There are approximately 350 varieties of bamboo in Vietnam and it grows wild almost everywhere. It looks great and doesn't require painting and it wont rust.
BAMBOO FRAME
The frame appears to be bonded together with some thin bamboo strands and an epoxy-type resin. The bikes I saw were very well engineered and constructed and looked robust and strong. Of course they still require some metal parts, but its ideas like this that always lead to greater things. I'm going to see if I can find the owner of these bikes tomorrow and take one for a ride. Regardless, I think this is a cool idea...