Ozon designs beautiful bikes from bamboo.
You build them.
At Ozon it is all about BUILDING IT YOURSELF. We are enthusiastic about empowering people to exercise their creative energy and produce something with their own hands. To facilitate your project, this is what we offer:
- Excellent bike designs
- D.I.Y. kits of materials
- Frame jigs and templates
- Tutorial videos and online courses
You pick your design. If it’s going to be a cargo bike, single speed, multispeed, road bike or randoneur is up to you. We’ll ship the material and frame jigs to you and help with our detailed video tutorial to finish your bamboo bike.
1. pick your design
Do your research about which type of bike you want. The Ozon website has plenty of information, but also read magazines, visit your local bike shop, and check out mainstream manufacturers. You MUST decide what you want to build before you start building your bamboo bike. Changing your mind in the middle is not possible!
Road Bike, Gravel Bike, Track Bike, Cargo Bike, Singlespeed or Fixie: There are many different types of bikes that serve different purposes. When you invest the time to create a bike, it has to be the one you want. Anything else will simply not suffice. That’s why Ozon has an extensive library of bike designs and is continuously creating new prototypes.
The design defines exactly what you will build. It defines which parts will fit, how it will fit your body, and you benefit from the past experience of everyone who has built it before.
Your bike has to fit your body. Too big or too small is uncomfortable, and it can lead to knee or back injury. That’s why Ozon designs all come in 5 different sizes.
2. order the complete kit
Go to our SHOP page and pick the design you like the best. If it’s your first bike, then buy a “complete kit”. It has everything you need to build that frame, including all of the jigs, materials, and drawings. So long as you have some the space and the tools, this is all you need to get started.
Ozon DIY bike kits are exhaustive in their contents and documentation. We’ve thought of everything so you don’t have to.
The contents of our kits are of proven quality and your bike will easily withstand 10 or more years of daily use. We’ve been building bikes since 2009, and this experience has taught us which materials to use, and which to avoid. We only include proven materials in our kits.
3. watch the tutorials and build your bamboo bike frame
The Ozon tutorial videos will guide you through every step of the process. Sign up for our online courses, where you’ll get video instructions on our newest design, access to a community of other builders also doing the course, and a weekly Q&A session with an Ozon expert.
The BEST way to build a bamboo bike is to do it with friends, especially one who has done it before. We encourage everyone to share this hobby, teach other people, and help eachother. We taught workshops for years and it is an excellent experience.
If you are an experienced builder and want to offer courses for money, YES YOU CAN use our kits in your workshops. Please contact Ozon and discuss this openly. We strongly encourage this idea and we’ll help you get everything you need for the best price.
4. mount the components
Every Ozon design comes with a list of recommended parts that will fit your beautiful new bike frame. We don’t sell bike parts, but will soon partner with online retailers to sell bundled sets for your design. This way you can order everything you need, at online wholesaler prices, with just one click.
Bike parts are a funny animal. There was a lot of deliberation about whether or not Ozon should sell boxes full of bike parts. In the end, there’s just no way we could compete with huge online retailers, and we want our customers to get the best prices. So we decided to leave the bike parts to the bike part webshops. But don’t worry, with the parts list included in the kit, ordering exactly the right parts is easy.
Or option #2: just take your new frame and the parts list to your local bike shop. There’s nothing special about mounting parts on a bamboo bike frame: your wrench monkey will be happy to do it for you.
And just a little insight from the side of bike design: it is frequently the parts, especially the fork, that dictates a lot of bike design. We don’t get to decide which parts are on the market, we can only design bikes to fit what’s available. This is why it’s so important to pick the design you really want before you start. Its an amazing moment when you start unboxing those shiny new pieces of technology and see how perfectly they fit on your frame.
How many bikes do you need?
Scenario 1: you are single
Answer: as many bikes as you already have, +1
Scenario 2: you are married.
Answer: as many bikes as will cause your marriage to collapse, -1
Result: Proceed to the Ozon online shop and consider your next project. Build your own bamboo bike now.