Gear Reviews

Components Shimano 105

Wheels Shimano Ultegra

Sizes Custom sizing

MSRP $1,500 (frameset)

With strength and ride qualities similar to that of carbon fibre, and a nearly unlimited supply of the raw material, bamboo is gaining in popularity for building bicycles. First made popular by American bike builder Craig Calfee, bamboo bikes can be expensive and time consuming to produce, but between the novelty of the material and the outstanding ride quality, they’re a good choice for cyclists looking for something a little less mainstream.

Fifteen years after Calfee first built a bamboo road bike as little more than a publicity stunt for his carbon fibre frame business, Toronto native Patrick Menzies started experimenting with bamboo framebuilding. “I got into building them because I have a background in woodworking and figured I could combine that with my growing interest in cycling,” he said.

The quality improved with each frame Menzies built in the development phase and he officially launched the Menzies Bamboo brand at the Toronto Bike Show in March. He sources all of the raw bamboo from a specific location in China, where he says they’re growing the strongest and most resilient type of the plant. Constructing each frame - which can be built to any geometry design required by the customer - takes about 40 hours. The bamboo tubes are first mitred together and glued with epoxy. Next, there’s a final layer on all of the joints of either natural linen such as flax, or of carbon fibre. The frames are coated inside and out with epoxy to make seal them from weather.

The frameset we tested was one of the early production models. It came paired with a Shimano Pro full-carbon fork, and we built it up with a Shimano 105 drivetrain with Ultegra road tubeless wheels. Cockpit components included Zipp’s aluminum Service Course handlebar and stem, a Pro aluminum seatpost and a Bontrager RXL saddle. We could have built it up lighter using a higher-end drivetrain, but we felt the 105 kit was a good match for the Menzies frame. While it’s relatively light, cyclists with a lightweight build in mind will likely bypass bamboo for carbon.

The way bamboo rides is like no other frame material. Though it felt as laterally stiff as a more traditional road bike, the Menzies was incredibly comfortable to ride. Road noise was almost non-existent and there was almost a silky ride quality. We found the geometry on this particular Menzies bike to be a bit unusual. The top tube was typical of a medium-sized bike, but it had a taller head tube and seat tube than normal, creating an extremely high standover height. It also had a more slack head tube angle than we like on a road bike, so we found it a bit too upright. Fortunately, the frames are custom-sized, so if we were ordering a Menzies to purchase, getting exactly the fit we wanted would be included in the price. Our test bike also didn’t have bottle cage mounts, but they’re now standard on all frames.

Menzies realizes bamboo bikes will likely never outsell aluminum or carbon, but he’s happy keeping his operation small and hands-on, and will likely max production at around 50 frames per year. In addition to the road bike we tested, Menzies can make mountain bikes, cyclocross bikes and triathlon bikes with aerodynamic, ovalized bamboo tubes.