For five days, a group of craftsmen worked feverishly through the week, huddled in a corner of the Bayawan City bus terminal.
After a week of measuring, cutting, sanding, varnishing and fitting, Bayawanons caught their first glimpse of a bamboo bicycle.
“Is it strong?” “Is it safe?” These were among the commonly-asked questions from curious onlookers after looking at the shiny bicycles with bamboo frames.
John Climaco, a teacher at the Crossroads School in Los Angeles, California, could only smile in answer, referring them to a video showing on a nearby TV set the many rugged trails this bamboo bike has been on.
With a small grant from the Crossroads School, Climaco came to the Philippines to teach his fellow Filipinos how to make bamboo bicycles, a passion he acquired from Craig Calfee, the pioneer designer of bicycles made of the lightweight carbon fiber metal.
The idea of making a bicycle out of bamboo occurred to Calfee while playing with his dog. That experience, Calfee told a reporter for a US-based magazine, made him realize how strong bamboo is. Calfee made the first bamboo bike in 1995, which he uses to this day.
Climaco’s passion with biking in the U.S. led him to Calfee, who introduced Climaco to the art and science of making bamboo bikes.
Calfee even came to the Philippines in 2009 to hold a one-week training on building bamboo bikes at a farm in Tarlac.
Bamboo, Climaco explained, has one of the highest tensile strengths in terms of fiber. “All the components are available here, plus, craftsmanship is good here,” he said.
Getting down to the technical information, Climaco said that because of the springy characteristic of the bamboo, it gives the rider a different feel. “It wants to go back to its original shape, so it springs you forward,” Climaco said.
And best of all, the bamboo frames that they’ve built so far have fared very well even against the expensive metal bicycles. “The rich bikers even say it rides like a titanium frame,” Climaco continued.
Their search for materials led them to the Buglas Bamboo Institute in Negros Oriental.
Joebert Koerkamp of BBI introduced Climaco to Jude Cabangal, an artist and avid biker of Bayawan City. The connection was made.
Climaco visited Bayawan and fell in love with the place. “There’s something in the air here in Bayawan–it’s different here,” he said, citing a local trait called bayawanihan (Bayanihan among Bayawanons).
Cabangal, who works at the Office of the City Administrator, gathered nine craftsmen to form the Bayawan Bamboo Builder’s Guild, and to be trained how to make bamboo bikes. “Our City is trying to position itself as an environment-friendly City so the bamboo bike industry is in harmony with that goal,” he said.
They were grouped in threes, and each group made one frame. “I’m confident that individually, they can build a bike on their own,” he said.
Priced at P25,000 per frame, the Bayawan Bamboo Builder’s Guild targets to build one bike frame per month, which will be accelerated. “We will start with road bikes–fixies, or fixed gear bikes,” Cabangal said.
Next year, Cabangal said, they’re looking forward to sponsoring a bamboo bike race. “Bayawan and Negros Oriental will be the bamboo hub!”
Bamboo bikes may soon become a big thing in the Philippines through this enterprise. But apart from the business prospects of this project, Climaco sees an underlying theme that makes this a truly Filipino product–“Kawayan is resilient. Filipinos are like that. And this is also about sharing the skills and sharing the opportunities.”
