布萊恩·貝尼特斯·麥克蘭德鍾情於自行車。
這位29歲的菲律賓籍美國人騎著自行車穿梭于馬卡蒂市的大街小巷。
但是他的坐騎是用竹子製成的。
“竹子是一種令人難以置信的材料。
在植物王國中它真的生長迅速而且吸收成噸的二氧化碳。
從這個角度來看,這是一個非常的可再生資源。
然後是性能水準方面，
其天生的減震杆結構特徵真的在吸收道路和公路上的阻力後使騎行變得超級平穩。”他說道。
麥克蘭德于2010年創立了竹子自行車公司，公司將當地竹子原材料轉化為自行車架。
公司車間坐落於在維多利亞城市郊,距馬尼拉130公里。
竹子則從農場和野外獲取。
公司的工人們將材料進行切割,加工及處理做成專門的自行車架。
完成品可不便宜。
價格定在1200美元左右。
然而麥克蘭德表示大部分的利潤會回到這一貧窮的社區。
“我們可以為全球市場生產世界公認的一流竹子自行車而保持國內這一鄉村省級地區的就業,這樣工人們可以與家人一起並且有有償的工作,”他說道。
許多直轄市的60000名居民從事著水稻種植的工作,但這不是一份全年的職業。
麥克蘭德和維多利亞的市長坎迪多·凱姆一起協作互惠互利。
已經有一些維多利亞的農民種植竹子繁殖體或幼苗。
“這是另一個我們可以給人們提供工作的項目。
他們種植,切割,生產竹子的繁殖體,我們付給他們15比索，這個價格讓他們很滿意。”凱姆說道。
“好處就是生產竹子的繁殖體後,他們帶回到自己的後院。
希望在三年內他們能夠切割並且賣個好價錢。”
麥克蘭德走訪城鎮支援的竹子培育基地。
他表示短短幾年內這間工廠就可以收穫。
“竹子可以說是地球上最環保的建築材料。
如果你使用正確品種的話竹子就如鋼鐵般強硬。
它非常耐用,非常強壯,可以支撐一個自行車架所需要的要求。”他說道。
麥克蘭德表示不僅僅是自行車，竹子可以用來製造更多。
他希望自己的公司僅僅是在菲律賓竹子革命的開始。
Bryan Benitez McClelland is passionate about bicycles.
When the 29-year old Filipino-American who head out onto the streets of Makati City, rides a bike.
But his is made of bamboo.
“So bamboo is a pretty incredible material.
In the plant kingdom it grows really rapidly and absorbs tons of carbon dioxide.
From that perspective, it's a very renewable resource.
And then in the performance level,
ts got the characteristics of naturally vibration dampening pole structures, which really absorb the road chatter and road buzz and makes for a super smooth ride,” he said.
In 2010, McClelland founded Bambikes, a company that turns locally sourced bamboo into bike frames.
The Bambikes workshop is located in the countryside, in the town of Victoria, 130 kilometers from Metro Manila.
Out here, the bamboo is harvested from farms and the wild.
Bambike's workers cut, treat and process the material into specialized bike frames.
The finished products are not cheap.
They start at around $1,200.
McClelland said much of the profit, however, goes back into this poor community.
“We can produce world-class certified bamboo bicycles for the global market while keeping jobs at home in the rural provincial areas so that the workers can stay with their families and have gainful employment,” he said.
Many of the municipality's 60,000 inhabitants work in rice farming, but that is not a year-round job.
McClelland and Victoria's mayor, Candido Guiam, see mutual benefits in working together.
Already, some of Victoria's farmers are planting bamboo propagules, or seedlings.
“So this is an alternative program where we can provide people with work.
They plant, they cut, they produce propagules of bamboo, we pay them 15 pesos, that's good enough for them," said Guiam.
"The good thing is after producing the propagules of bamboo, they bring them back to their own backyard.
And hopefully in three years they can cut it up and make money out of it.”
McClelland visits one of the bamboo nurseries the town supports.
He said that in just a couple years this plant will be strong enough to be harvested.
“Bamboo is arguably the greenest building material on Earth.
Bamboo is as strong as steel if you use the right species.
Its very durable, very strong and can stand up to the demands needed by a bicycle frame,” he said.
McClelland said bamboo can be used to build a lot more than just bike frames.
He hopes Bambikes is just the start of a bamboo revolution in the Philippines.
