Bamboo Bikes

Listen, I need some help. Someone from the nasty side of Oxford Street stole my fixie and I need to get to work. I refuse to buy another Myki card to replace the one I lost on Monday, which mind you, still had eighty bucks on it.

Option 1. I could go and buy another bike made in West Africa, but that's a continent I'm trying to fuck with less as I get older because my Karma balance is unbelievably one sided. Slave labour, not cool.

Option 2. Former graphic designer turned Bicycle Jedi, Mik Efford, has begun selling bikes made from Tonkin bamboo, which he builds from his living room in Brunswick.

His frames are put together with carbon fibre and epoxy resin. To get one, if you can get on the waiting list, you have to meet Mik in his garage where you're measured for a perfect fit. Based on this flickr set of a brain scientist (no shit) riding the thing around the velodrome, it seems as though the bikes are incredibly strong. The problem is I have a suspicion Mik is only building these things to kill more Pandas. Decisions, decisions…