Wooohoo! Version 1.0 of my dream of a bamboo solar bike is rolling! It’s taken quite a lot longer than I ever imagined to bring this idea into the world, but well…. Yesterday I took it for its first ever spin! 🙂 The bike is commissioned by my profoundly patient friend Kate White, crafted in the Philippines by bamboo bike master Englebert Chan, with coke bottle solar engineering by Joan Daguio (the coke cap at the back is a light and a switch!) and it was transported with the inestimable help of Irina Otmakhova and Junesay Bakala and Carly Gayle and Fami Redo. The bike features an array of solar panels built into a rear rack that is part of the actual frame. The panels charge a built in lithium polymer battery bank. This powers the bike’s lighting system and allows you to plug in your phone and other USB powered bike devices. It works, but admittedly, this current version is rather primitive. It’s already so clear to me how to make it way better– and already we are 80% done version 2.0!! Stay tuned as the development continues this month. Rolling!!
