Golden bamboo was being turned into a fleet of bicycles in a three-day workshop which began at the Eden Project in Cornwall on Thursday.

Eden has teamed up with the Bamboo Bicycle Club of London to turn canes of different thicknesses grown next to the Rainforest Biome into frames for a variety of two-wheeled machines.

Under the guidance of the club’s founder James Marr, two women and three men are making on-road and off-road bikes in a workshop set up next to the Core education centre, drawing many curious onlookers as the bikes take shape.

One of the cyclists  taking part in the bamboo bike build at Eden is champion racer Vin Cox - the former Guinness World Record holder for cycling around the globe, which he set in 2010 after riding 18,225 miles through 17 countries in just 163 days.

Vin, from nearby Charlestown, was the first Guinness World Record-breaking cyclist to visit Africa on the epic ride, which involved 12 boat and plane transfers and took him through five different continents and across 17 countries.

Vin selected thick lengths of bamboo to make a frame for a go-anywhere adventure bike. He said: ’The bamboo frame will have clearance for fat four-inch tyres to cope with all sorts of loose terrain, from sandy deserts and beaches to soft snow. It will be great to go into nature on a bike built from a bit of nature.’

The bamboo bike build was due to finish yesterday afternoon, in advance of the third annual Eden Classic sportive today.

The bike-makers have been invited to join the mass-participation event which is expected to number around 1,000 riders this year.