This incredible adventure took them through sixteen countries and across roughly 30.000 km of paved and unpaved roads, mountain passes, and dirt tracks. The trip started above the Arctic Circle and other regions along the way included the Alaskan and Canadian wilderness, the forests of the Pacific Northwest, the desert areas of Baja, the rainforests of Central and South America, the Andes highlands of Peru and Bolivia, the steppes of Patagonia, and the ice sheets of Antarctica.

To make this an even greater challenge, Cycle for Water was the first ever attempt to do all this by cycling the entire route on bamboo bicycles.  This was a critical component towards minimizing the team’s carbon footprint and to demonstrate that many challenges can be overcome by using sustainable solutions.

We received this email from the Cycle for Water team on March 30, 2012.  In their own words;

“Twenty months ago, me and my buddy Joost started cycling from Alaska, going south on two of your bamboo bicycles.  I’m very happy to report that we made it to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the America’s after a 12.000 mile trip.  It was the first successful cycling expedition from Alaska to Argentina on bamboo bicycles!

The bamboo bicycles performed perfectly and after putting in the bamboo spokes at your workshop, did not have any problems with broken spokes whatsoever.

One of the things we learned on this trip was the importance of teamwork; not only the two of us working together, but also all the people and organizations that supported us along the way. In short, we couldn’t have done it without you and the bamboo bicycles. The bikes created so much attention and together with our mission to raise awareness for the global water crisis, which is leaving 1 billion people on this earth without access to clean drinking water, we were able to get a lot of press and media interested. Our highlight: 6 interviews with CNN.

Along the way we spoke at many schools, universities and companies. And the bamboo bicycles were always in the center of attention.

Long distance bicycle touring on bamboo bicycles is not a very common thing, but I hope we inspired some people to choose bamboo.

Last cool thing I wanted to mention; we actually took one of the bikes with us to Antarctica where we cycled a couple of miles on the ice.  We think this might be the first time a Calfee Design/bamboo bicycle made it to the icy continent, the last true wilderness on earth.

Thanks again for all your support and the great bicycles, of course. They are truly pieces of art, but very functional at the same time.

Kind regards,

Joost and Michiel

www.cycleforwater.com

PS; find attached a couple of pictures of us and the bamboo bikes!

MTBR, video:  The founder of MTBR caught up with Craig Calfee at the show and shot this great video; they were fascinated with our newest tandem model; Tetra 29er.  This no-compromise adventure tandem weighs just over 30 pounds, features electronic shifting and is ready to accept any tire you choose; imagine a rail-trail tour or a gravel road race with 35c tires.  ENJOY THE VIDEO HERE.

Bike Rumor, photo essay:  Tyler from Bike Rumor spent a good amount of time in our booth at NAHBS; he walked away with some great photos and product details. His photo of our brand-new SuperClean front end goes a long way towards explaining this new module; enhanced form and function for your electronic drive train equipped bike.  ENJOY THE PHOTO ESSAY HERE.

Bike Radar and Cycling News, photo essay:  James Huang from Bike Radar and Cycling News spent some time in our booth at the show. He managed to photograph just about every bike we brought; he did a great job capturing the key features of our Dragonfly with PowerPost and SuperClean front end. You’ll find a beautiful bamboo tandem in the mix; that sled featured a Rohloff hub, dual belt drive, dual discs, generator front hub, a special font for the logo and tons of red anodized highlights.  ENJOY THE PHOTO ESSAY HERE.

Velo, photo essay:  We are very excited about this demo Calfee Adventure dual disc with our PowerPost and our Internal Battery and Wiring System for Ultegra Di2; we collaborated with Nick Legan, Tech Editor at Velo, to create this machine. We discovered Nick is a gravel road enthusiast and approached him with this opportunity. He’ll shortly take delivery of the machine; he’ll ride it for a spell. We can’t wait for him to share his thoughts.  He also noticed and featured our new SuperClean front end; that module deserves more space.  Look for further mentions and details very shortly.  ENJOY THE PHOTO ESSAY HERE.

Los Angeles Times, article:  Handmade bicycles earn a mention in the LAT; we’re increasingly busy and so it seems are our fellow boutique, domestic bicycle builders.  ENJOY THE ARTICLE HERE.

Road Bike Action, article:  The editorial gang at Road Bike Action showered us with some pre-NAHBS love. They justify their enthusiasm for Calfee Design with a Top Five reason list.  ENJOY THE ARTICLE HERE.

“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.”