Photo: Davis Bike Club 600k, April 2007. Calfee Bamboo solo bike built for climbing and ultra distance event comfort.
Real bamboo, "The new high tech frame material." "The quiet ride." carefully prepared by expert craftsmen for bike frames of all types after ten years of analytic testing.
Campagnolo Record Group, Chris King Gold hubs, Mavic Open Pro black 32 hole rims, DT Swiss black spokes w/blue nipples, Continental GP tires, Calfee spec Alpha-Q carbon fork, Ritchey Short Shallow WCS BioMax carbon handlebars, FSA 8 cm alloy/carbon stem, Selle An-Atomica Watershed Leather saddle and matching bar tape.
Calfee Design Bamboo Bikes
"The new high tech frame material." Real bamboo tube sets assembled with hand wrapped lugs provide "The Quiet Luxurious Ride" by absorbing an excess of road noise & vibration before it reaches your body. These frames are carefully prepared and finished by expert craftsmen to make bike frames of all types after ten years of analytic testing.
Ridden by hardcore, dedicated pros and anyone else who needs comfort, style, and performance over distance. The frames perform exceptionally well over any type of terrain and absorb an excess of road noise vibration to help you stay fresh and focused in all circumstances.
Determination demonstrates a capacity for genius. Creativity and desperation share common ground. Calfee's bamboo revolution is the evolution of a profound idea. Craig says that bamboo is currently (2006) about 20% of the company's bike production. Bamboo varieties have been grown in Asia for centuries to use in stressed structures. Then there is ornamental, garden variety bamboo. Calfee uses specially selected Black bamboo that they designed additional curing treatments for in their production facilities. They also use very special Asian Smoke House cured bamboo. As has happened repeatedly during design and manufacturing problem solving exercises, someone eventually found inspiration for the solution in nature. The natural layered structure in bamboo is representative of an ideal manmade laminated tube structure that has been designed to provide strength and to absorb road, track, and trail vibrations that cause fatigue.
Calfee Design bamboo frames sets include individualized tube specifications and geometry, are handcrafted to accommodate the riders specific physique and meet specialized and everyday riding regimes. Paris Brest Paris 2007 We Came. We Rode. We Conquered.
 Tom's new climbing & ultra distance Smoked Bamboo frame, hand wrapped carbon fiber thread lug work, special Alpha-Q Calfee spec fork. Campagnolo Record group, FSA K-Force Compact carbon handlebars, hand built wheels; Chris King Gold hubs with Stainless Steel free hub body, Mavic Open Pro 32 hole black rims, DT straight gauge black spokes with blue nipples on Continental rubber. Finished with Selle An-Atomica Golden Watershed leather saddle and handlebar tape. |  |
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Bamboo tandem and a scene too beautiful for words, 2007 Santa Cruz 200k. |
 Longhorn Fixie. 2006 Interbike special. |
 Tom & Adrienne (RAAM Crew Chief & school teacher extraordinaire) during Santa Cruz 200k brevet on the fabulous Calfee Design bamboo tandem. This is the first tandem made to test the materials and see what it would take to make a bamboo framed tandem that rides like Calfee's spectacular carbon fiber tandems. |
 Standard road going frameset fitted with Topolino wheels which also absorb road noise in remarkable fashion while providing a high performance ride. |  Aesthetic beauty in the details. |
 Blondie. Multi speed town bike with Parisian attitude. This lug work is hand wrapped bamboo fiber. |  Beauty in the details. |
 Craig's personal 29'er hardtail commuter. Unparalleled style and comfort. Practical in the extreme. The rear rack houses tail lamps and is designed to carry a passenger or any other type of load. The rear fender is a stressed member in the frame, designed for aesthetics and performance. |  Calfee family tandem. This is a product test bed that has evolved structurally as it is ridden helping Calfee develop better solo bikes. The carbon fiber lug work on this test model was later augmented with crosshatch carbon fiber strap wrapping covering the frame tubes between the lug work. The tandem originally featured bamboo tube forks with carbon fiber strap reinforcements. The two fork tubes were captured in elegant hand wrapped carbon fiber triple clamps. |
 A customer cyclo cross frame with recently cured hand wrapped hemp lug work. All the bamboo frame lugs are hand wrapped using carbon fiber, bamboo fiber, or hemp fiber. Lugs are profiled and finished by hand. Each material provides similar strength characteristics, but dramatically differing color. |  Carbon fiber and a lone bamboo frame in the finishing room at Calfee Design. |
 Customer carbon fiber and bamboo frames await final inspection and delivery. |  Beauty is in the handcrafted details and riding performance. These frames help reduce fatigue over long training and racing miles, yet they provide state of the art performance. |
 Black bamboo framesets nearly ready to go. |  Beauty in the details. |
 New order of smoked bamboo awaits grading & cutting. This special material offers another frameset option that differs from black & blonde bamboo used since Calfee began building with bamboo. |  Tubes are rough cut to length and binned according to diameter, awaiting selection for individually spec'd frames that will suit the rider's body & bike performance specifications. |
 Going fishing. Materials that did not pass muster for frame tubing. | |
 New boss in the Calfee family and Craig's bamboo 29'er, soon to sprout a back seat. Mateo was born on the first day of Interbike in 2006. |  Calfee's seminal carbon fiber frameset circa 1987. |
