Building Bikes out of Juniper!?

Iconic Bicycle Builder Teaches High Schoolers New Skills

Each Spring Rehoboth Christian School offers students a week of alternative studies that introduce new skills that range from chef level cooking, to competitive chess, to classic rock guitar lessons. This year, however, a handful of students were likely confused when their first day of instruction had them wandering the grounds of the school looking for pieces of juniper wood they were told would soon become a bicycle?

Little did they know that legendary bike builder, Craig Calfee, was their guest instructor. Craig was the first person to build a bicycle out of carbon fiber, and crafted the first carbon fiber bike used in the Tour De France, by Greg Lemond (the only American to win the prestigious cycling event). Innovative and boundary defying, Craig also pioneered the use of bamboo as a sustainable bike frame building material, becoming the first to offer a production bike made of the plant in 2005.

The concept of making bikes from bamboo fueled Craig’s travels to Africa with the purpose of teaching rural communities the unique and wonderful properties of bamboo. He guided them through the process of building bamboo bicycles by hand, with the goal of helping them find a reliable and sustainable source of transportation.

Rehoboth Art Teacher, Rudy Folkerts, partnered with Craig on a such a trip to Africa, where they became friends. At Rudy’s invitation Craig came to Rehoboth to teach bike building, but instead of using bamboo Craig decided to use a local material, juniper wood, so students could learn to build bikes out of what was growing in their backyards.

The week-long course was a flurry of sanding, shaping and bending the various pieces of wood, careful registration for drive train points, and then bonding them together with epoxy. Rehoboth also offers as a part of it’s regular High School curriculum a course in bicycle repair called, Bike Tech. Taught by Rehoboth teacher, Chad Meekof, that class teaches and certifies kids as qualified in the repair and maintenance of bicycles.

But building a bike frame from scratch was a whole new level of experience for students. In the end, the kids build a great, functional bike. Craig says, “Juniper is a special material, it is structurally efficient and it has great character. I really had a enjoyable time working with the kids who made it.”

The Bike-Tech class at Rehoboth has purchased the necessary equipment to hopefully continue making wood bikes in the future. Craig’s business, Calfee Designs (https://calfeedesign.com/), is based in La Selva Beach, California, where he continues to make award-winning bikes and explore creative possibilities for cycling.