Published:  13:43 Friday - January 20, 2017

With the main material is bamboo, this kind of bike is said to be more environmentally friendly, beautiful, fashionable look and attract tourists in both domestic and international to Hoi An (Quang Nam)

The bicycle frame and handles are made from a type of bamboo that is quite rare in Vietnam because it is so difficult to harvest due to its natural thorns. However, this type of thorny bamboo is solid and durable, so it is good for making bicycle frames, the bikes are very strong. Many foreign customers ride them around Hoi An Town.  The average life-span of each bamboo bike is 20 years and he offers a 10-year warranty.

Why people here choose bamboo, not another type of material? According to a automobile engineer in Hoi An, bamboo has an isotropic fiber structure and therefore, has high bearing capacity. Bamboo can be treated in different ways to improve the rigidity and resistance to termites: it can be soaked into mud, dried or smoked. Besides, it is also a type of material friendly to the environment. 

It takes 35-40 hours to make one bike frame. Then, it needs to be treated with chemicals friendly to the environment to make it resistible to woodeaters, after that, it is dried to a certain level of humidity to ensure rigidity and protect against getting cracked as well as customers' security. The price is around 25 - 30 VND million for each one.  

Vo Tan Tan, 38 years old, a bamboo bike maker in Hoi An, said: "Initially, many customers thought that his bamboo bikes were just souvenirs, but when they got on to test them, they were good enough to operate, so many of them were happy to spend thousands of USD to by one."

Duong Anh, a tourist from Quang Binh Province, said " This bike is unique. It's the first time I've ridden a bamboo bicycle. It's a great product" 

Obviously, this type of bicycle in Vietnam is more and more well-known and received foster feedback from customers.