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Vijay S harma ’s bamb eco-frie oo bike ndly co takes nveyan ce to ne w levels !
At a time when eco-friendly means of transport are beginning to gain a cachet, Bangalore-based Vijay Sharma’s ‘Bambike’ ought to find many takers. Built of bamboo, which cuts down energy consumption and has better shock absorbing power, the Bambike has interestingly found only six buyers so far – and none of them in India! “People expect it to be cheap because it is made of bamboo,” says Vijay. What they don’t take into account is the effort that has gone into crafting the unusual bike. Born in a carpenter family in Ahmedabad and exposed to carpentry all his life, Vijay became a designer ‘accidentally’. Despite graduating from the School of Interior Design at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT), Vijay found he preferred actually making things in the workshop to creating designs for interiors. He started a small company with friends and in 2009 made his first recumbent trike (a three wheel tricycle), followed by a tandem recumbent trike.
When a friend asked if he could make a bike using bamboo, Vijay agreed with alacrity. “And that’s how the first Bambike came about,” he says. “Initially it tended to be too flexible but I overcame that problem in the next prototype.” The first roadworthy prototype of the Bambike was launched at TFN 2009 (India’s longest bike tour), where the president of TI Cycles invited Vijay to conduct a dynamic test at their facility in Chennai. The bike passed the JI (Japanese industrial standard) test, and Vijay went to develop more prototypes for hybrid and mountain bikes. “There was a lot of media publicity and lots of people inquired about the bike, but no one came forward to buy one,” he rues.
I feel a certain material can be used in a way that would complement the material.” Vijay is inspired by things made by non designers. “I feel the difference between a designer and a non designer is esthetics,” he says. “I believe in the words of some designer who said design is 98% common sense and 2% the magic ingredient sometimes called style and sometimes esthetics.” He certainly seems to have found his magic ingredient!
He’s hoping for that situation to change soon but meanwhile he continues to explore non conventional material to make conventional things. “I don’t necessarily do it just because I want it to be different,” he informs, “but sometimes
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