Bambucicleta: the bike made of bamboo
Bamboocycles are more resistant, handcrafted and sustainable than conventional ones, according to their manufacturer
Conventional bicycle frames are usually made of steel, chrome iron, titanium aluminum and carbon fiber. After the end of the bike's life, the metal frame can be recycled, but this process is not always simple, depending on the material specification.
To make skinny an even greener means of transportation, Brazilian designer Flavio Deslandes decided to replace the typical materials used in the formation of the painting with a very resistant and abundant vegetable in Brazil: bamboo. The development of the work was only possible due to the efforts of Deslandes, who has been dedicated to the project since the beginning of his industrial design course at the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) in Rio de Janeiro. He did several projects related to bamboo and one of them was the Bambucicleta, a bicycle made almost entirely from bamboo. The designer started to develop his first model in 1995 and managed to present his prototype to the world in 1998, at the 5th International Bamboo World Congress (see more here).
In 2000, Flavio moved to Denmark, a country where the bicycle is the main means of transport, with the aim of improving his studies and being able to manufacture and sell bamboo bikes to companies and customers specializing in the means of transport throughout Europe.
In the same year, his bamboo bicycle attracted the Brazilian public and began to be produced in the state of Rio de Janeiro, in addition to being distributed to other states. One of them was São Paulo, which received about five thousand copies of the bamboo bike for the “Bike Schools” program, which encouraged children who were students from the Unified Educational Center (CEU) in Parque Anhanguera to cycle from home to school .
For those interested, two options are available on the Bambucicletas website: the bamboo frame with its aluminum connections, for the price of R$900; and the bamboo frame with vegetable fiber in its connections - which costs R$ 2,200. Be aware that it is only the painting that is for sale. Other parts for assembling the bike must be purchased separately. The average price is high because, according to the manufacturer, the entire production process for the painting is handcrafted. Due to the material used, the bicycle is more resistant than conventional ones and has a life expectancy of around 20 years, also according to the producers.
Check out more information on the official website. See below the video about the Bicycle Schools Project:
