Jacob and John have company called Panda Bikes that makes Bamboo bikes. They're in Fort Collins, Colorado. Fort Collins, by the way, is also home to Swobo, New Belgium Brewing, RideKick, the FC Bike Co-op, the FC Cycling Festival, and a dozen great bike shops. I think there's something in the water out there.
We talked a bit at Interbike and geeked out on one of their bikes (I think it was the natural). In Jacob Castillo's words:
We wanted to outfit our bamboo bikes with beautiful, well made, and stylish components that you can't find anywhere else. What's more is that their company culture and outlook on riding is aligned with ours. When we were talking to their team at Interbike last year, we both know that it was a great match and started working together immediately.They've been good customers in the time between then and now and if you check out their website, you'll see that all of their complete bikes include at least a couple VO parts. Some of them have almost a full VO group, even.
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| the Panda "Natural" |
Then there's the Action. A bike that comes stock with a porteur rack, wing nuts, the excellent Grand Cru Hubs, a 1x9 grand cru 50.4bcd drivetrain, VO leather Saddle, and grand cru seat post. That's pretty neat.
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| The Panda "Action" |
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| Drivetrain of "the One" |
There's also "The One," which is a belt-drive city bike, with Grand Cru fixed gear hubs, wing nuts, and a gorgeous center track carbon belt drive. That's really unique.
And, lest you think that it's all a bit too commodifying, the frames are built by hand in in the USA. These are premium bikes, and we're glad to provide premium parts for them.
These bikes are supposed to ride like a dream, as well. We haven't had a chance to ride one, but I think they're pretty unusual, using a blend of steel, lugs, and bamboo to tune the ride feel and make a really unique looking bike.
Has anyone here ever ridden bamboo? What's it like?
Yes, I've ridden bamboo. I had the opportunity to ride a bike built by a mechanic at the Bike Depot Park Hill, created when the Bamboo Bike Studio came to town so that you could hand make your own bamboo bike frame. It was a single speed and set up with some leftover bits, but the ride was amazing! It accelerated crisply and felt extremely light and flickable, but at the same time, it also rode like a magic carpet over broken pavement.
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