June 30, 2011

‘Growing’ bikes a bam-booming industry

Over six days in June, Josh Carnes pedaled 412 miles up and down Colorado’s high mountain passes on a road bike that handled with the traits of titanium, yet originated from a forest in coastal Mexico.

For the second straight year, the 33-year-old Windsor firefighter completed the Ride the Rockies tour on a bamboo bike frame, serving as ambassador-in-motion for Panda Bicycles, the Fort Collins maker of the bicycles.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Solar Operations and Maintenance for Commercial Properties

One key qualification to consider when selecting a solar partner to install your system is whether they have an Operations and Maintenance (O&M) or service department. Since solar is a long-term asset with an expected lifecycle of 30 plus years, ongoing O&M should be considered up front. A trusted O&M partner will maximize your system’s energy output and therefor the return on your investment.

“It’s got a really good ride,” said Carnes, of Panda’s Legacy road bike model, on which he’s logged 1,500-plus training and touring miles over the past year or so. “The bamboo has a lot of the road-dampening characteristics of carbon (fiber), and it’s got a real springy feel to it, too.”

The smooth ride from bamboo and Panda frames’ sustainable origins have brought early success to the local startup. This year, the local business is looking to ramp up production and become a more visible brand for “lifestyle riders” who spend lots of time getting around on their bikes — and have some expendable cash for a handcrafted ride.

“We had a really successful first year,” said Jacob Castillo, one of Panda’s founders. “But we’re looking to break in more.”

Panda, amazingly, isn’t alone among bamboo-bike manufacturers with Fort Collins ties. Boo Bicycles sells “race-level” bamboo frames, targeting professional riders, and owner Nick Frey has lived in Fort Collins for two years since starting up the business. The companies chalk up the local bamboo connection to coincidence, but Fort Collins seems to be growing its reputation for quality, eco-friendly, handmade bikes.

Growing quality bicycles

Like so many promising enterprises, Panda Bicycles has its beginnings over a round of beers.

Castillo and John McKinney were fellow graduate students in the first class of Colorado State University’s Global Social & Sustainable Enterprise program in the College of Business. One day, in late 2008, while sharing a few after-class brews, McKinney mentioned that during his time working in Mexico and searching for green-housing materials, he had found a sustainable bamboo farm on the Yucatan Peninsula. The bamboo wasn’t suited for construction, but Castillo, McKinney and other colleagues began brainstorming other uses.

“Being long-time bike enthusiasts, we said, ?I bet you could build a helluva bike out of it,’” Castillo recalled.

Castillo and McKinney figured they could build a durable, lightweight bicycle from bamboo that would offer the best qualities of titanium and carbon fibers — and also come from a sustainable production process and look aesthetically pleasing.

By early 2009, Panda Bicycles incorporated and the company had started building frames in a spare room in Castillo’s house — “to the chagrin of my wife,” he joked. Later in the year, Panda offered its first limited edition of 25 bikes for sale at $1,250 each; the run sold out in weeks.

Castillo said the company’s bike design and joints, which uses steel lugs to hold the frame together and is proprietary and patent pending, is Panda’s “secret sauce,” responsible for the unique, “supple” ride.

After the initial rollout, the partners realized that the price would have to come up, Castillo said, “to reflect the underlying craftsmanship of what goes into it.” The frames now retail for $1,649 to $2,149, and bikes can cost between $2,200 and $3,800 fully outfitted. If that sounds spendy, Castillo said Panda bikes are “a steal in the (craft) bike industry” and sales have continued to grow.

The company got a boost when it joined the Rocky Mountain Innovation Initiative (now the Innosphere), a local startup incubator, to claim bigger workspace and gain business support. This past spring, Panda also picked up $10,000 from the University of Northern Colorado Monfort College of Business Entrepreneurial Challenge, which paid for new production and marketing.

After first-year sales of about 60 bikes last year, Castillo expects to build on those figures in 2011. Panda has set up shop — the “Greenhouse,” as the company calls it since it’s fabricating, or “growing,” bikes from trees — on Olive and Mason streets in Fort Collins, in a former storage unit of Ace Hardware. The group shares space with Zero Hero, the local zero-waste event-management company, and the offices have made heavy use of repurposed and recycled materials, including a former barn door that opens to a room where the next round of bamboo frames are being assembled.

Castillo said Panda could enter its next growth phase this fall when the company will try to attract heightened retail interest at the major bicycle trade show, known as Interbike, in Las Vegas.

The ?Rolex’ of bamboo bikes

Despite some similarities, Boo Bicycles takes a different approach to marketing its bamboo frames.

Owner Frey, who holds a mechanical engineering degree from Princeton, said he and other partners began exploring bamboo bikes after seeing earlier attempts. Bamboo bikes were built as novelties in the past decade, and Boo Bicycles began to produce bamboo frames, held together by carbon-fiber joints, handcrafted and custom built for professional racing.

Frey, who has competed as a professional and elite amateur rider, said the company has focused on its bikes’ performance elements, and he sees Boo frames as high-end offerings.

“I’ve never pitched (the bikes) as green or sustainable. I sell them as top-level bikes,” Frey said. “My goal is to make the bike into a Rolex or Ferrari.”

Boo is selling about 60 bikes a year, mostly through direct sales, and Frey said the frames’ prices, ranging from $2,625 to $3,215, compare favorably with similar performance-level bikes made of carbon fibers or titanium. (Fully outfitted and customized, the bikes’ price tags can hit $6,000 to $9,000.) For now, the company has a waiting list, and Frey sees room for more growth in a still-developing market, although he doesn’t envision a mass assembly line producing tens of thousands of bamboo bikes.

And while Boo isn’t nurturing its Fort Collins and Colorado connections quite as much as Panda, Frey said the city and region can develop into a bamboo-bike capital, known for superior, handcrafted bikes.

“There are so few builders of bamboo bikes that have been successful,” Frey said. “So to have two of the most prominent builders in the same city is pretty sweet.”

Joshua Zaffos is a freelance journalist based in Northern Colorado who covers environmental and sustainablity issues for the Business Report. Contact him at news@ncbr.com.

Over six days in June, Josh Carnes pedaled 412 miles up and down Colorado’s high mountain passes on a road bike that handled with the traits of titanium, yet originated from a forest in coastal Mexico.

For the second straight year, the 33-year-old Windsor firefighter completed the Ride the Rockies tour on a bamboo bike frame, serving as ambassador-in-motion for Panda Bicycles, the Fort Collins maker of the bicycles.

“It’s got a really good ride,” said Carnes, of Panda’s Legacy road bike model, on which he’s logged 1,500-plus training and touring miles over the past year or so.…

Categories:
Sign up for BizWest Daily Alerts