“Hardly an eco-friendly gimmick, bamboo in fact makes for a surprisingly high-performance bike frame, offering stiffness, durability, and comfort. Calfee, an artisan bike company founded in 1987 near Santa Cruz, California, is the industry leader in frames made of bamboo tubes mitered together and bound by epoxy-soaked hemp fiber, offering both visual beauty and vibration dampening.”

Road Bike Action, Feb 2011; “Just the other day all activity in the palatial RBA office literally came to a halt when a new test bike was pulled from its box. It literally took our breath away and made us realize A. Just how exquisitely beautiful a bicycle could be be made and B. How fabulous it is that the artisan nature of the industry still thrives.”

VeloNews, Feb 2011; “Craig Calfee has developed a Di2 battery that’s built into an Enve seatpost…” Make sure to enjoy the video.

Cyclingnews.com, Feb 2011; “Among the highlights are a custom Di2 battery housed inside the seatpost and a set of Shimano’s latest sprint shifters – an extra set of buttons mounted directly to the drops for faster shifting and no need to move your hands when going full-out – trick Mad Fiber carbon tubular wheels, a full complement of cockpit components from Enve Composites, Selle Italia’s SLR Teknologika Flow saddle and a SRM power meter.”

All Hail the Black Market, April 2011; “I suppose what intrigued me the most about this is simply that a small company took a thing that would previously been thought of as a perfect design, and actually made it better. According to Mike, the powers that be at Shimano are pretty juiced by their efforts, and already have had a few installed in bikes for testing in hopes to get them on pro team bikes later on this summer. I also liked that it looked good by a can of beer…”

All Hail the Black Market, April 2011; “Fortunately for me, Wayne pulled out his own personal speed cycle which was equipped with said wonderment and not only let me take an assortment of photos of it, but allowed me to take it on a spin. When no one was looking, I did like three bunny hops on it and a couple of sick skidz, but don’t tell him that.  At any rate, here is what his bike looked like with the battery pack, and all of the Calfee applied buffing…”

Ralph Lauren Magazine, April 2011; “Stylish bicycles have become the accessory du jour.  RL selects the eight most covetable rides…Hardly an eco-friendly gimmick, bamboo in fact makes for a surprisingly high-performance bike frame, offering stiffness, durability, and comfort.”

We’ve recently published some new stock colors.  We’d be very happy to introduce more and would love to receive your feedback.  We have thousands of colors at our fingertips and are out to expand our stock library.  Importantly, if you’d like to paint your frame a color we don’t stock, we are very happy to order it and apply it to your frame and/or components.  There is a custom color charge owing to our need to purchase a minimum quantity of that paint.  Additionally, some colors and color treatments (for ex; pearlescent, metal flake) are more costly.  With non-stock/custom paint, we’ll work with our paint shop to determine cost and return a quotation to you to consider.  In most cases, we’ll prepare a painted carbon tube sample so you can evidence your choice prior to committing either of our resources.  If said sample is not what you were looking for, not to worry, we’ll prepare another sample.  We’ll often send customers in search of that perfect color/finish to an automotive paint store to spend some time with the available paint decks and return to us with a paint/finish code.  We use that code to purchase exactly the right paint/finish and manifest your dream finish.  We’ve go you and your frame covered!

While we’ve been building this road frame for years, we are only now formalizing its station in our model range. This frame is a high-tech take on a frame that has traditionally been built out of steel or, more recently, titanium. This frame may be described as a Randonneur; a bicycle built for performance through comfort. Our definition of “comfort”, at least in this instance, is “avoiding those things that make a rider go slow”. Consider how wide-tire clearance, full-wrap fenders, integrated lighting systems, optional luggage, enhanced stability and improved vibration dampening, among other features, might enhance “comfort” and then “performance”.

Keep an eye on our site and our facebook page for geometry tables, pictures and further specifics; we’ll have them live shortly. You can get a very good estimation for pricing by choosing your frame model (Dragonfly, Tetra or Luna), selecting the appropriate Adventure Frame Options package (disc brake or 57mm reach caliper brake) and any further frame options you’d enjoy from our Price List.  Importantly, if you select our dual disc brake frame option, you can select a custom Wound Up fork or our modified ENVE 2 (28c clearance) or Comotion (35c clearance, fender eyelet) forks ($250 + fork); our fork modification features the addition of disc brake tabs to a stock carbon fork, adding only 63 grams (413 gram fork weight for ENVE 2).  We had our ENVE disc brake fork tested by ACT and it passed the EN 14781: 4.9.7.3 – disc brake fatigue test.  It is now for sale for $650 (only $250 more than a stock ENVE 2 fork).  This fork is perfect for tires up to 700 x 28; if you’d like to run wider tires, select the Comotion or Wound Up fork.

In the meantime, here is an overview of the Calfee Adventure;

• Available in our Dragonfly, Tetra, Luna or Bamboo frame models
• Utilizes our Road geometry with up to one degree slacker head tube angle and 43cm chainstays (+1.5cm)
• 35c tire clearance
• Compatible with full-wrap fenders
• Front and rear disc brake option
• Front and rear 47-57mm caliper brake option
• Multiple full carbon fork (steerer and lowers) choices with disc brake and eyelet options
• Integrated lighting options

As shown with our SRAM Force stock build kit and fenders, this complete bike weighs 17.5 pounds/16.5 without fenders.  This bike would retail for around $6300.

We’re currently building and delivering these frames to clients all over the world. Please contact us if you are interested in more information.