Africa’s bamboo bicycle reaches US
Simon Harding
3rd July 2009
A bicycle company set up by two local Zambians and a pair of Californian students on the outskirts of Lusaka is enjoying a growing international reputation, writes Kieron Humphrey for the BBC. Zambikes was established to provide employment for local people by manufacturing a unique product: a bamboo bicycle, robust enough to withstand bumpy African roads.
The bamboo frames are bound together with sisal (a tough plant fibre cord), lacquered and then varnished; all simple techniques which circumvent Zambia’s lack of capital and raw materials, whilst taking advantage of abundant labour, skilled in these simple low-tech techniques. Indeed, as the Zambikes workforce grew in confidence, new projects emerged, including a bike trailer, a sturdy bike and a bike-drawn ‘zambulance’, now in widespread use throughout the city.
However, the success of Zambikes reaches way beyond the company’s headquarters: a red brick workshop set in sun baked farmland on the edge of town. US bike designer, Craig Calfee had been experimenting with bamboo frames for a while. Strong, light and with good vibration dampening, the wooden frames were a practical and environmentally sustainable alternative to metal. Zambikes provided just the kind of reliable, low tech workshop Calfee wanted to manufacture his designs. The frames are made by Zambikes in Lusaka and then shipped to the US where pedals, breaks, wheels and handlebars are added to create the finished product. ‘We were so excited’, said Zambikes American founder Vaughn Spethmann, ‘the thought of Zambian made products being sold in the USA - that doesn’t happen’.
The company also offers micro-loans to employees. No interest is charged, but employees must demonstrate how the loan will benefit the wider community, perhaps by setting up a small business or building houses to rent.
Zambikes brings together small-scale entrepreneurship, local economic development and environmental sustainability. The company works with the resources available to create a product which is finds a ready market both in Zambia, where it is an affordable and practical mode of transport, and in the US, where the bamboo bike chimes with wider concerns about climate change and sustainability. However, a Zambikes frame retails for £290 ($475) in the US, whilst the finished bike costs £550 ($900) - £260 ($425) more. The company’s profitability appears to be restricted by an acute lack of resources, skills and technology in Zambia and perhaps US trade restrictions on manufactured imports. Given the ability to export complete bicycles, who knows how big Zambikes could grow and how many Zambians it could employ.
See also: From bush to bikes – a bamboo revolution, Kieron Humphrey, BBC, Lusaka (1/7/09), available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8125274.stm