Building a bicycle for Africa

I wrote about Bicycling magazine's Biketown Africa project yesterday. The magazine, Kona and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation are donating 200 bicycles to help health-care workers deliver treatment to AIDS and HIV patients in cities and rural areas of Botswana. More than one-third of that nation's people suffer from AIDS or HIV.

Based up the road in Ferndale, Washington, Kona Bicycles has launched a blog that chronicles its search for a bike design and components to match the country's extreme conditions. A bike off the shelf won't work.

In a letter from associates in Africa, the company learned some of the challenges their bikes must survive. Among them:

“Major problems in Africa:
1. thorns
2. lack of spares
3. lack of service repair skills and facilities
4. diverse terrain (some parts damn hilly, so singlespeed is ok in most areas but not always)
5. really crappy roads (corrugations, sand etc)
6. long distances (water carrying capacity)
7. dangerous drivers (trucks etc)”

Further research raises other problems: theft, re-sale, bikes that both men and women would use, and lack of tools (allen wrenches). Also, there was a suggestion for a handlebar basket to carry goods and foot rests in the back to carry a passenger.

To solve the problem of flats, Kona has contacted Kenda, the bicycle tire and tube maker, to develop a thorn resistant tire for Africa.

Next, the company developed a step-through frame design, above, and chose a Shimano coaster-style brake; a typical cantilever-style brake would suffer too much abuse.