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James Marr, founder of Bamboo Bicycle Club, an impressive maker tenant we placed into Canning Town’s Caxton Works discusses working through lockdown and the future of cycling.

Can you tell me a bit more about Bamboo Bicycle Club? What makes you different? 
Bamboo Bicycle Club has been operating for eight years and has helped over 3,000 people build their own bespoke bicycle frame. These have predominantly been constructed through our in house workshops or through home-build kits. We also have an educational programme for schools and have collaborated with several universities on various build projects. Our main hub is located in East London, however we have franchises in Munich, Germany and Amersfort, The Netherlands. The build process involves identifying the right bike frame for each person (commuting, racing, mountain bike, gravel bike, recumbent, tandem etc) and taking their measurements. We then create a CAD drawing which acts as a template for the build, cut and shape the bamboo to size to fit in a jig, join the bamboo lengths using a natural flax fibre and epoxy resin, finish and apply protection before fitting components – and it is then ready to ride! The components can be ordered specifically for the new frame, or people can use existing components from an old bike depending on each persons’ budget and vision.

When you were looking for a studio, what attracted you to Canning Town and Caxton Works? 
The space have been developed with manufacturing and workshops in mind. The spaces are clean and bright with sliding grills on the window.
 
Everyone has adapted to a new normal with Covid. Have you changed anything?
We’ve start to help serving bikes in the local community. We’ve also been running live workshops online and launched a super simple bamboo bike that takes 70% less time to build.

What does the future of cycling look like for London & the UK? Have you already seen a change with the amount of people building bicycles?
With social distancing set to continue for the foreseeable future, and government investment in cycle lanes and infrastructure across the country, bikes look set to grow in popularity.  Although traditional bike shops have seen an unprecedented surge in business during lockdown, this is not the case for Bamboo Bicycle Club as restrictions have prevented us from being able to hold workshops (one of our key income generators). We have however seen a increase in online orders.

For more info head to: www.bamboobicycleclub.org