The Dirty Secret Of Bicycles

People at an east London workshop are paying to learn how to make their own bicycle. Nothing particularly unusual about that. But at this Bamboo Bicycle Club session, the bikes are being made with bamboo.

In all the excitement to proclaim bicycles the answer to congested roads, polluted city air and our own health, the materials used to manufacture those bikes often get overlooked.

Carbon fiber, for example, is increasingly popular for new bicycles, particularly racing bikes. The material, though lightweight and strong, is difficult to recycle and cannot be melted down and reused in its original form, unlike aluminum and steel.

Carbon fiber also is dangerous and dirty to work with ― constructing carbon fiber bike frames or wheels means working with toxic resins ― so it’s an unlikely material for encouraging people to build and repair their own bicycles.

It’s also incredibly wasteful. Most people replace a racing bike every three years, adding to carbon fiber scrap, says James Marr, founder of the Bamboo Bicycle Club and a former wind turbine engineer.


Source : huffingtonpost