When John McKinney traveled to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico to research bamboo as a sustainable housing material, he never thought he’d return to build bicycles instead.

I sat down earlier this year with John and his counterparts, Mark Schlink and Jacob Castillo, all co-owners of Panda Bicycles in Fort Collins, Colorado.  They shared their serendipitous journey of how they became craftsmen of bamboo bicycles. With a combination of a love for two-wheeled machines, a unique education, and a community that embraces human powered transportation, the guys at Panda are just the kind of leaders that the bike biz needs in a time when ‘sustainable’ and ‘alternative transportation’ are all the rage.

As graduates of the Global Social Sustainable Enterprise (GSSE) Program at Colorado State University’s College of Business, John, Jacob, and Mark have taken a different path than most MBA students.  The GSSE Program is all about business with a social and environmental conscious.  A student who completes the program will have a sense of ‘creating a better world, improving the lives of people, while building profitable ventures’.  This rings true for all three guys.  It was during John’s summer practicum inMexico (an avenue for applying classroom knowledge in the real world) that the foundation for Panda Bicycles started.  It’s a business that definitely embodies the spirit of the GSSE program.

Located in a non-descript office space on Mountain Avenue, the guys at Panda are at the center of a very personalized bicycle-building lifecycle.  Their process actually begins in Mexico where they work with a sustainable bamboo grower on the Yucatan Peninsula who harvests, cures, and dries the material that is shipped to the United States.  The guys have an intimate relationship with their supplier and often travel south to handle business personally.  This interface is an important part of their business. 

Once the bamboo arrives in Fort Collins, each piece is inspected and heat-treated by hand before being put together.  The procedure is labor intensive, but as I saw during the interview, it’s also what makes a bicycle of this nature so exceptional.    John put it best when he shared his own perspective, “the bamboo has a natural variability, so each one (bicycle) is unique.” 

Mark Schlink demonstrates the process of heat treating bamboo.

Their ‘labor of love’ is obvious and shows in every bicycle they produce.

The 411 on Panda Bicycles

Panda Bicycles currently offers three complete bikes: The Singlespeed Commuter, Internally Geared Townie, and The Legacy (21-speed roadie).

Check them out at http://www.pandabicycles.com

More on Bamboo Bicycles:

Bamboo has become a wildly popular ‘green’ building material.  It’s strong, sustainable and environmentally friendly.  It’s also stronger than steel and an ideal material for building bicycles. 

See the Spadout article ‘Bamboo Bicycles: Strength in Nature‘ for the science behind this unique frame material.