As the popularity of bamboo bikes increases so does their availability thanks to a new affordable line called Aluboo. Inspired by the success of Boo Bicycles, Aluboo came about to meet the demand of more affordable bikes. While Boo’s custom bikes can cost as much as $5,000, Aluboo bikes utilize the same iron bamboo species as Boo Bicycles but offers bikes for under $1,000.
Based in bike-friendly Colorado, the Aluboo bikes are made with 50% bamboo and take about 8 hours to build compared with Boo Bicycles that take roughly 50 hours.
Founder Nick Frey is quick to point out to the local paper The Coloradoan that these bikes, while affordable, are not cheap and all that that word implies: “I think we are going for high end affordable, so it’s not a cheap bike. If people like to bike and are excited to ride instead of (driving) a car, that’s more green, “Frey explains.
Bikes will be available in March 2013.
Across the globe and dealing with a larger start-up budget, a new initiative in India titled “Bamboo Processing for Sri Lanka” is aimed at developing a supply chain and process industry in the country. Focusing on degraded lands in rural communities, government leaders are investing $24 million over 7 years to cultivate 10,000 acres in the region into an industrial base for food, flooring and alternative biomass energy. Impoverished rural communities will benefit from the harvesting of the bamboo and the indirect employment that comes with an improved economy.
While local India culture has a long history with bamboo for use in trade, crafts and food, the official Forestry Service oftentimes treated it like a nuisance, a weed. Upon discovering, however, that bamboo was an excellent resource for fiber production for local mills the grass grew in such popularity (no pun intended) that the rapidly renewable resource became scarce in supply. Now that bamboo stewardship is on the forefront of the government’s agenda, bamboo culms and shoots will give a boost to both the manufacturing and agricultural industry in India.
Plans include using bamboo for:
- Low value and bulk processing (e.g – charcoal, paper, pulp)
- Premium processing (e.g. – flooring, laminated furniture)
- Medium value processing (e.g – chopsticks, mat boards)
- Unprocessed culms (e.g. – scaffolding, traditional construction)
As more businesses around the world take advantage of the wonderful bamboo plant, indulge for yourself in luxurious bamboo sheets or bamboo clothes! For more news on how bamboo is bolstering economies around the globe, visit Green Earth News section on Bamboo’s Worldwide Impact.
