'Alabamboo' Cross-Country Bike Ride

The premise is simple (sort of): Four cyclists riding custom bamboo bikes (made from Alabama-grown bamboo, who knew?) across the USA to raise awareness about bamboo as a sustainable building material and a domestic resource. The bike builder is called Common Cycles, and currently the bamboo peloton is making its way across the Ozarks of Arkansas, en route to the Pacific Ocean sometime this August.

You can monitor the project — called “Alabamboo Make and Ride” — on the group’s social media (Facebook.com/RideAlabamboo; @RideAlabamboo), which they plan to update with mobile devices and re-power with sunlight as they ride via Solio chargers, an Alabamboo sponsor.

Right now, according to an update, the group’s mileage is 50 – 60 miles per day. But they are looking to start ticking off centuries in the next week and putting their bamboo bike frames to a true cross-country test.

—Stephen Regenold