Trust Art - Bamboo Bike Project

Worldwide TV Commercial for Bamboo Bikes

A public project led by the Bamboo Bike Project and Josh Powell

Project Proposal

Despite the critical need for bicycles in Africa, there are no local bicycle building businesses anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa. The Bamboo Bike Project (BBP) is a project by Scientists and Engineers at The Earth Institute at Columbia University, that is working with entrepreneurs and investors abroad who see economic, social, and technological potential in implementing large-scale bamboo bike production and sale in local markets.

BBP has examined the feasibility of employing native bamboo for bicycle frames, instead of the expensive and technically demanding carbon fiber material, or even the less expensive but also technically demanding aluminum or chromium-molybdenum steel that is commonly used to build bicycle frames.

BBP has determined that it is possible to source the material and supplies necessary to build a bamboo cargo bicycle in Africa, and train the local people to build the bikes. But this does not explain how they get from one good bamboo bike to their large-scale production. It is with large-scale production that the social goals of the project are achieved. Larger factories will be able to ensure quality control of the finished product, and produce job opportunities that yield economic growth. Factory-style bamboo bike production is necessary.

THE CHALLENGE
"Investors should be aware that the actual demand for these bicycles are not known and cannot be accurately estimated with a high-degree of certainty. Customer perception of the bicycles could be a significant impediment to an investor's success in the market." -KPMG Whitepaper on Bamboo Bikes

THE ART
Currently, BBP is focusing on facilitating factory-scale production in the Millennium Cities of Kumasi, Ghana and Kisumu, Keyna. To support those projects, Trust Art has commissioned video artist Josh Powell to create a TV commercial campaign to strengthen demand for bamboo bikes, support the launch of the two factories, and stimulate the bamboo bicycle building industry in those areas (and in other developing countries). The video will be created in a non-linguistic style, imagining what it means if all the world rode around on plants. The objective is to make the bamboo bike appeal to a global audience. Josh wants to use the high quality tools that mainstream advertisers use that are usually reserved for big budget commercial projects to spread this not for profit message. The success of this project will be measured by how well people in Ghana, to begin with, are affected by the video.

THE IMPACT
Success of the Bamboo Bike Project will mean the establishment and growth of a vast network of bamboo bicycle factories, which will each produce upwards of 20,000 bamboo bicycles annually for local distribution. The high levels of production and sale required by this model will more substantially improve the state of rural transportation, and will have a greater capacity to impact wider economic markets (potentially lowering the cost of other forms of effective transportation for rural residents even further).

Resources

Timeline

Summer 2009

Fall 2009

Winter 2009-10

Spring 2010
Trust Art Auction

Locations

Khumasi, Ghana

Kisumu, Kenya

About the Artist

The Bamboo Bike project: A non-profit that was founded by a couple of professors associated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute to investigate manufacturing practices that could result in a bicycle frame being made entirely from heat-treated bamboo, and that can be assembled in three or four hours by a group of unskilled laborers. The goal of the bamboo bike project is to share the manufacturing process with the local communities in the developing countries where they will be sold. In this way, a new industry is generated and the bamboo bike is proliferated to many who need it, and the economies of these struggling communities are also aided.

Josh Powell: As a video artist and someone who has directed commercials in the past, Josh is interested in the tools of advertising as a means of mass communication of good ideas. A lot of his work has dealt with the effects of advertising on our society, but he is also interested in how these tools can be used to bring about a better future.

Artists' Past Work

Public Wall

Bikes - Left

Bikes - Right2

Bikes - Right1

Friday

Oct232009

The Bamboo Bike Made it to Maine!

Click to see the album

The bamboo bike journey has been successfully completed. The prototype bike made it from New York to Maine, a 400-mile ride to find out exactly how well the bamboo bike could perform. View photos from along the way.

This ride also became the inspiration for a new ride in Ghana and Kenya to promote the virtues of a native bicycle industry on the African continent. That is now the subject of the TV campaign we are commissioning, and we would like to involve filmmakers in those regions to become a part of it. Send us your thoughts if you have ideas to share.

October 23, 2009 at 1:48 |

Planning the Ride

Here are the notes assembled from our planning session last night. As you can see, we separated out the list into 'to do' and 'to bring' with names tied to tasks as applicable. We couldn't be more excited about this adventure.

TO DO:

Fix/prep bikes (jose/seth)
Trip to Bamboo Bike studio (jose/seth wed. july 29th)
Make bamboo fenders
Map Bike stores (Jason)
Map Farmer's markets (Jason)
Map parks/homes to stay in (seth)
Figure out the sail boat adventure (seth)
Pre Game Bike Trip ? (TBD)

TO BRING:

sunblock
bike tools
bike tubes
tent
minimal food
allan wrench
bike pump (from lia)
matches/lighter
patch kit
first aid kit
maps
knife
tire changing tool
grip tape
video camera
rain gear
swimsuit
baby powder
water pump
sleeping bags
stove?
cliff bars
sunglasses
sweater/hat (for the cold)
gloves?
books
flashlight
bug spray
face paint
writing material
deck of cards
bungi cord/rope
trash bag
cellphones/chargers

DATES:

Aug. 13th - Leave town
Aug. 14th - bike day
Aug. 15th - bike day
Aug. 16th - bike day/extra day in case of rain
Aug. 17th - sailing day (or biking to amanda allen's)

...after that, its hanging out in Maine time...

August 15, 2009 at 9:11 |

Brooklyn to Maine on the Bamboo Bike

Click to see interactive map

Next Wednesday, August 12th, Trust Art founders Jose Serrano-Reyes and Seth Aylmer and Trust Art patron Jason Fried will embark on a six day bicycle journey to raise awareness for Trust Art throughout New England. Starting at Orient Point at the tip of Long Island, they will then ferry to Conneticut and bike through Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire before ending up in Acadia National Park inMaine.Click herefor a mapped out view of the route (via MapMyRide).

Along for the ride will be one of Red Hook'srecently renownedBambooBikes. We will be testing first hand the long-distance usability of the bike for future farmers in Kenya and elsewhere, in addition to capturing footage to be used in theBambooBike commercial.

If you happen to be along the route and want us to stop by, drop us a line atseth@trustart.org. We also welcome any riders willing to join us for any portion of the journey. We will be spreading the good word with our postcards, encouraging a new group of art lovers tobecome Trust Art patrons!

Currently, theBambooBike Project(BBP) is focusing on facilitating factory-scale production in the Millennium Cities of Kumasi, Ghana and Kisumu, Keyna. To support those projects, Trust Art is commissioning a TV commercial campaign to strengthen demand forbamboobikes, support the launch of the two factories, and stimulate thebamboobicycle building industry in those areas (and in other developing countries). The video will be created in a non-linguistic style, imagining what it means if all the world rode around on plants.

August 15, 2009 at 8:37 |

2 Comments

Saturday

May162009

The Solution to Every Problem The World Faces [VIDEO]

May 16, 2009 at 13:30 |

Bamboo Master Justin Aguinaldo

This is a photo of Justin Aguinaldo, one of the three bamboo masters currently building bikes at the Redhook studio. Justin is also a founder of the Mess Kollective, a bike messenger service owned by the bike messengers who ride for it.

His first hand experience as a professional biker has given him a tremendous amount of insight into the special modifications to the bamboo bikes that guard against wear and tear. The three bikes you see here are all prototypes that were sent to Ghana last month to an entrepreneur there who will use them as reference to design the first bamboo bike factory overseas.

March 23, 2009 at 12:34 |

1 Comment

Thursday

Mar052009

The Bamboo Bike Prototype

Hard at work in their Red Hook studio, Bamboo geniuses Marty Odlin, Justin Aguinaldo and Sean Murray have created their first truly workable prototype.

Currently, their main challenge remains figuring out the best way to treat the bamboo to maximize its strength. The bamboo you see in this image has been heat treated with a blow torch, which give the frame that dark, charcoal-ly look. It is also a plant...on which you can ride! This fact alone is reason to be optimistic about the future of transportation. Read more at www.bamboobike.org

March 5, 2009 at 16:03 |