Saving the planet with wooden bicycles

We are proud to announce that BEAMZ are our member of the month for August! 

Combatting climate-change, boosting biodiversity, awakening wellbeing.

There are so many interactions and feedback loops between these issues, BEAMZ see them as a single triple-threat; we cannot address one without solving the other two.

• The climate stability which enabled the evolution and rise of human civilisation was facilitated by the Earths biosphere, converting Earth’s high CO₂ atmosphere into oxygen, locking massive quantities of carbon underground in carbonate rocks and minerals we now regard as fossil-fuels. 
• Dysfunctional economics creates pressure to undo this process by recombining (burning) the carbon with oxygen to produce CO₂, while over-exploitation of the natural environment, severely compromises its regenerative function.
• Divergent response, between existential-angst and aggressive-denial is undermining wellbeing on both an individual and social scale.
• Wellbeing, another three-in-one issue, encompasses mental, physical and financial health.  strongly interacting to create negative or positive feedbacks.

BEAMZ aims to practically demonstrate a pleasant sustainable future, where we possess fewer products, but love them more.

Wooden Bicycles

Cycling strongly supports wellbeing.  Riding a bike centres you in the moment, physical exercise rewards your brain with endorphins.  Cardio-vascular health is promoted, while skeletal muscles produce cytokines, proteins which aid immunity.   

But conventional bicycle production is as unsustainable as any other industrial product.  BEAMZ achieve sustainability by using locally growing hardwood poles, the stems of small trees, each bike saves an amazing 60kg of CO₂ compared to aluminium alternatives.  Cutting the poles revives the traditional woodland practice of coppicing; the tree lives on, growing future crops of poles. 

Brilliant for biodiversity, coppice-woodland floor is a haven for flowering woodland plants and the invertebrates they support. 

Making BEAMZ Bikes encompasses harvesting wood, preparing material by de-barking and hollowing the larger poles, building frames and forks for assembly into high-performance, practical bikes.  This creates a powerful array of wellbeing – supporting volunteering opportunities; working in woodland, working with wood, gaining manual skills and working to re-create sustainability.  We want to deploy those opportunities to groups that benefit most.

Bikes made for local people from local material by local people, supporting the local economy.  The bikes look and feel unique and powerfully spread our vital sustainability message from the local woodland, onto our city streets.

BEAMZ are currently reaching out for key people who share our passion.  People with skills, time and commitment to help us realise the full potential of the opportunity we have created.