Chances are your bike frame is made of steel or aluminum, but over the past few years, a different frame material has come to the forefront of bicycle design: bamboo.

But that’s panda food, you say!

Not just panda food!

True. But it’s also a fairly decent material for building bikes. While they’re not as light as bicycles made of carbon fiber, bamboo bikes weigh in at around four to six pounds. And there are several other advantages to bikes made using bamboo as opposed to steel, aluminum, or even carbon fiber. Bamboo Bike Studio, an organization that holds weekend-long classes devoted to teaching people how to build their own bamboo bike, credits the material for its “build-ability,” performance, and sustainability.

Bamboo bike from Calfee Designs.

Bamboo is “buildable” because the only tools you really need to work with it are woodworking implements –  it usually takes a specialist to run the machines necessary to build aluminum frames or to mold carbon fiber, but anybody who has enough coordination to ride a bike should be able to learn how to build a bamboo bike.  Because woodworking tools (normally) don’t require electricity, and due to bamboo’s quick growing speed and eco-friendly harvesting methods (no mines or refineries like steel requires), it’s pretty sustainable.

Sustainability and build-ability wouldn’t mean anything if the bike didn’t actually work. Considering bamboo is strong enough to sustain hurricanes, it’s not a bad choice for frames either. It’s also flexible enough to sustain bumps in the road.

By far the coolest property of bamboo bikes is their suitability for transportation in developing countries. The Bamboo Bike Project, which is run by the Earth Institute at Columbia University, is focusing on examining and implementing the use of bamboo bikes as a form of effective and inexpensive transportation in Africa. Because bamboo is light, durable, and relatively easy to work with, it’s perfect for building cargo bikes that can be used to transport goods even in remote areas with unpaved roads. You can read more about the Bamboo Bike Project on their blog.

If  you’re interested in learning how to build your own bamboo bike, check the Bamboo Bike Studio website. Religiously. Their weekend workshops cost $632-$932, depending on whether you want to build a frame or an entire bike. Currently, all their workshops are full, but their website claims that more will be added soon. Alternatively, you could take a hint from Slovak engineer Brano Meres, who has a bunch of photos of his experiments with bamboo bicycles on his personal website.

Brano Meres' second bamboo frame.