Calfee bamboo gravel bike -- with CARBON inside

The tube set

Bamboo meets carbon. That's a combination I'd never heard of or imagined but that's what is happening with the new gravel bike Craig Calfee and Calfee Design are building for me.

I'm not talking about both materials being used on a bike. No, this is bamboo tubing reinforced on the inside with a sheet of carbon fiber. Thanks to this carbon reinforcement, they can hollow out the bamboo tube, making it far lighter. Is that cool, brilliant, unexpected?

Carbon on the inside

Bamboo is an amazing material for bike construction and Calfee has been working with bamboo for over 20 years. It's shockingly strong when heat-treated and, in particular, has excellent vibration damping. In fact, according to Calfee, bamboo beats aluminum, steel, titanium and most carbon frames for a smooth ride.

Check our these photos of our gravel bike in progress. You'll see the bamboo tube set -- all hand selected based on geometry and how you want the bike to perform. There are two photos that show the inside of the bamboo tube with the carbon fiber lining. And finally, two pics of a similar bamboo bike from Calfee's image gallery.

carbon lined

I will be periodically updating the blog with more photos as the grave bike comes together. Due date: early May -- just in time for the first big adventure, the Peter Sagan gravel gran fondo in Truckee, California on May 5th.

And if you're intrigued by the idea of a bamboo bike, Calfee also has DIY kits where you build your own. That's another big benefit of bamboo -- no welding rig required. For those of you that are big guys like me, Calfee is also skilled when it comes to monster size frames.

Unique and distinctive