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Summary Mexico gets an alternative transport option from lighter, greener bicycles made out of bamboo.
A young student has come up with a new form of transport for the overcrowded streets of Mexico City: the bamboo bicycle. Diego Cardenas, 25, says his creations are lighter and greener than conventional bikes and he is now pedaling the idea to design-savvy commuters. The industrial design student was inspired by pictures of other bamboo bicycles - the first one having been showcased at a London trade fair in 1894 - and decided he could improve on them.It all came from a trip to Europe, specifically to a workshop in France. It was a bamboo workshop and when I came back I had a class in design trends. While investigating this material, I found bamboo bicycles and I made the first one based on what I had seen. I saw that there were lots of possibilities for improvement. It was because of that I decided to improve on the one that had been done previously and continue with the process, said Cadenas.He made a workshop in his garage and set to work. He found bamboo created a sturdy yet flexible framework that was ecological too. After assembling and trailing various models, in 2010, he formed his company, Bamboo Cycles, with partner Luis Cuellar. This bike is much lighter. It is handmade. It is something that people can appreciate and it a different design. Ultimately, the aim is the same: to transport people from one place to another with their own energy, but it has these added values of design, lightness and also the bamboo gives it ecological value, said Cardenas.The company says bamboo is the idea crop to work with as it can be sustainably harvested and grows fast, without needing pesticides. The process requires the bamboo to be dried for six months and reinforced with carbon fibre. All the bikes are handmade, which is reflected in the price tag. Bamboo Cycles primary model, the UH-02 model, is sold online for 10,000 Mexican pesos (836.00 USD).
