Share the road – http://www.argusleader.com/article/20091114/NEWS/911140302/1001/news

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An effort to improve bicycle safety in South Dakota probably will land in Pierre for lawmakers to decide during the 2010 Legislative session.

The effort began after a Harrisburg man’s father was killed in a collision with a van while he was bicycling in Iowa in August.

State Sen. Sandy Jerstad, D-Sioux Falls, a dedicated cyclist herself, agreed to introduce a bill in the Legislature after meeting with Tony Anderson.

“When Tony brought me his story, it was heartwrenching. I thought this was the right thing to do,” Jerstad said.

She has forwarded to the Legislative Research Council her suggestions for a bill that would require motorists to give cyclists and pedestrians a 3-foot cushion when passing them.

The proposal is similar to laws in about 14 other states, Anderson and Jerstad said.

“Hopefully, this will be well received. It’s not a difficult bill,” Jerstad said.

She favors provisions she has seen in other states’ laws that would make a first offense a misdemeanor and a repeat offense a felony. She anticipates there would be relatively few citations.

“I see it almost as more of an education bill,” Jerstad said.

Anderson and Jerstad are asking people who have been involved in accidents where vehicles came too close to cyclists or pedestrians and struck them to come forward with their stories. They also are looking for people who have lost friends or family members in such accidents, and people who have had near misses.

“Sandy and I are inviting them to come to Pierre in January to help drive this bill home,” Anderson said.

Before the legislative session opens in January, Jerstad also hopes to find a Republican co-sponsor to carry the bill in the House.

Anderson’s father was killed on a rural highway. Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead said he thinks that because many of those roads don’t have wide shoulders, the potential for bicycles and pedestrians to be struck by vehicles is high.

Milstead also said the number of riders using such roads seems to be growing.

“They’re becoming a more common sight on the rural roads,” he said. “As such, drivers are becoming more accustomed to them and routinely give them safe passage.”

At the same time, the sheriff applauds the proposed 3-foot passing bill.

Like Jerstad, he thinks much of the value of such a law would be the increased attention it draws to the issue.

“A law alone would do little to improve safety without a good educational and awareness campaign,” he said.

Anderson and Jerstad have another ally in the Falls Area Bicyclists. Nick Anderson, incoming president of the cycling club of about 100 members, said those members are ready to take on an activist role in promoting a safe cushion law for cyclists and pedestrians.

He also has recent personal experience with the issue after a vehicle nearly clipped riders on a FAB- sponsored ride this summer.

Give a bike to a refugee – http://www.magicvalley.com/news/article_0c4a7eb9-02da-517e-b98b-3543b71bddc5.html

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If you’re sick of your bike, give it to a refugee.
College of Southern Idaho honors students have initiated an effort to collect new and used bicycles for people served by the CSI Refugee Center — many of whom have no other mode of transportation once they arrive here.
The effort will involve help from the Twin Falls Rotary Club, and Spoke and Wheel Bike Shop has agreed to volunteer time repairing and tuning up donated bicycles.
“Our hope and goal is basically to get new and gently used bikes from the community and find them a new home where they’ll be treasured,” said Michelle Pospichal, the center’s match-grant coordinator. “It’s the only way some of the refugees have of getting to work or school.”
The center served 365 refugees last year and expects to serve 300 to 400 this year, Pospichal said. She emphasized that many of them are families and that the kids usually want bikes.
“We give out one bike per family when they come. That’s in our budget — part of getting them an apartment, basic supplies, a few days of food — but it doesn’t allow us to get bikes for the kids, and they usually want them, so they can play and ride around just like other kids,” Pospichal said.
She didn’t want to put a number on how many donations the center needs, but as of now, they don’t have any.
“We’d like to have bikes for mom and dad and some for the kids … I have no idea what to expect, so we’ll see.”
For more information, contact the Refugee Center at 208-736-2166.

Bike recall — http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2009/11/13/Easton-Sports-bicycles-recalled/UPI-41541258136733/

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WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (UPI) — Easton Sports is recalling about 6,400 of its bicycles because they could break, causing riders to fall and get hurt, a U.S. watchdog agency says.

Bicycles made with EA30 stems are involved in the voluntary recall, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced. The stems, which connect the handlebar to the steering fork, can crack and cause the bicycler to lose control and risk injury during a fall.

The recall includes Raleigh 2007, XXIX 700c MTN, RX1.0, Diamondback 2007, Mission and Sortie bicycles with EA30 stems.

The bicycles were imported from China by Easton Sports of Scotts Valley, Calif., and sold nationwide from August 2007 through August 2009 for between $500 and $1,200 apiece.

Stems sold individually were sold for about $30.

Consumers were advised to stop riding the bicycles with the recalled stems and contact any authorized Easton Sports dealer for a free replacement stem.

Consumers can call 866-892-6059 for information.

From http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2009-11-15-voa9.cfm – great use for your old bike.

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Americans bought an estimated eighteen and a half million bicycles last year. Some bikes never get much riding. Mostly they gather dust. But a project based in Washington is putting unwanted bikes from the United States to good use in developing countries.

Keith Oberg is the director of Bikes for the World.

KEITH OBERG: “Everybody has an old bicycle, and it is usually not ridden. It sits there in the garage, or basement or shed, going to waste.”

Stephen Popick recently had two bikes to donate.

STEPHEN POPICK: “I brought in two mountain bikes that my wife and I have ridden for the past ten years. My bikes wouldn’t fetch a nice price and wouldn’t be worth trying to sell, but they could be useful to somebody else.”

Bikes for the World collects bicycles and delivers them at low cost to community programs in developing countries. It shipped more than five thousand bikes during the first eight months of this year. Last year it shipped about ten thousand three hundred.

The bicycle recycling program is one of the largest in the United States. It is a sponsored project of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

Bikes for the World began in two thousand five. Since then it has shipped more than forty thousand bikes to communities in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, says director Keith Oberg.

KEITH OBERG: “We work currently with partners in seven countries actively — in Uganda, Ghana. We’re talking to an organization that we would like to ship to in Liberia. We have shipped to Namibia and the Gambia in the past. And in Central America we ship to Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, and we are talking to two organizations in El Salvador.”

Bikes for the World partners with nonprofit groups in the United States to collect unwanted bikes. Then it works with nonprofits in the other countries to get the bikes to organizations and individuals that need them the most.

For example, the Bicycle Empowerment Network Namibia uses the bikes to provide transportation for health workers. That makes it possible for them to visit more patients each day. The organization also has bicycle ambulance services to transport the sick.

The Bicycle Empowerment Network also provides training and support to help local organizations and individuals open bike shops of their own. The businesses sell the recycled bikes at low cost and provide repair services. Many of the organizations use the money they earn to help pay for other community projects.

And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms with additional reporting by Susan Logue. You can learn about other organizations working in the developing world at voaspecialenglish.com. And you can also find us on Twitter and YouTube at VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember.

From: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/health_science/daily/20091115_As_bicycle_ridership_grows__Phila__tells_scofflaws__Stop_.html

Kirsten Gwynn has no memory of the moment she was hit by a bicyclist while jogging last month along Boathouse Row. When she tries to picture it, all she sees is a bike tire. The bystanders calling 911, the ambulance rushing her to intensive care, the doctor telling her she had a skull fracture? All a blank.

Gwynn was in Hahnemann University Hospital for three days and bedridden for weeks after she returned to her Center City apartment.

Gwynn, 25, a nursing student at the University of Pennsylvania, who expects to graduate next month, struggles with dizzy spells, hearing loss, and, if she moves too quickly, a sensation that her brain is “jumbled.”

But she feels lucky things weren’t worse. At least two Philadelphia residents died last month after cyclists hit them: Tom Archie, 78, who was struck by a bicyclist going the wrong way down a street in South Philadelphia, and Andre Steed, a 40-year-old paralegal, whom police found bleeding on the ground at 16th and Locust Streets after an apparent collision with a bike.

“I still can’t believe this happened to me,” Gwynn said. “This was something I never even thought of as a possibility. But no matter how bad it gets for me and how frustrated I am, I’m back to normal life for the most part.”

More people are biking in Philadelphia than ever, according to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. More than 11,000 people pedal to work on a typical day, and an estimated 36,000 make that trip by bike at least once a month, the coalition’s bike counts of 2008 showed.

But the growing biking population has also brought more rogue cyclists who don’t follow traffic laws and can cause accidents.

And unlike reckless drivers, bike scofflaws typically get off free. They often flee accidents, and though police can issue tickets for violations, they almost never do. Philadelphia police wrote just 14 tickets to bicyclists last year, compared with more than 200,000 to drivers.

“Are we as diligent about it as we should be? Probably not,” Philadelphia Sgt. Ray Evers said. “But we have to prioritize. We can’t even stop every car violation we see.”

Police are hoping to change that, at least for a few hours, when they launch an effort to inform cyclists of the laws of the road. In the next few weeks, officers from the Ninth Police District, which includes Rittenhouse Square and much of Center City, will flood the area to write tickets. Members of the Bicycle Coalition are expected to be there to hand out information about responsible biking.

“I’ve always received complaints,” said Philadelphia Capt. Dennis Wilson of the Ninth District. “People get so fed up that I’ve had patrolmen get yelled at for biking on the sidewalk.”

Bicyclists are bound by the same laws as drivers. They are supposed to stop at lights and stop signs and to signal before turning. On roads that don’t have a bike lane, cyclists are supposed to keep to the right when possible. Drivers are supposed to treat bicycles as cars and to stay out of bike lanes, except when making a turn. And in Philadelphia, only children 12 and younger may legally ride on sidewalks.

In reality, cyclists often zip along sidewalks, weave between cars, and speed the wrong way on busy streets. Some bike messengers and others ride bikes with fixed gears and no brakes.

Some cyclists consciously flout the rules, but many are unaware of them, said Breen Goodwin, educational director for the Bicycle Coalition.

“A lot of people don’t understand that a bike is a legal motor vehicle, whether you’re a motorist who’s annoyed that you’re stuck behind a bike or whether you’re a cyclist who’s riding on the sidewalk because you feel safer there,” Goodwin said.

The city has worked in recent years to accommodate the growing number of bicyclists. The addition of bike lanes on Pine and Spruce Streets has more than doubled the bicycles there, according to the coalition, and many bikers say the corridors have been made safer for cyclists and motorists alike.

Goodwin said she believed stronger enforcement of traffic laws would have an impact on irresponsible bikers.

“If a cyclist runs a red light, they should be stopped,” she said. “A huge part of this is just educating people and teaching everyone that if you give respect, you’ll get respect.”

Police don’t keep data on how many people are hit by bicyclists, largely because combing through the city’s thousands of injury reports would be extremely difficult, they said. But anecdotal evidence from people who have reported a wide variety of injuries suggests the accidents are relatively common.

Gwynn doesn’t know what caused the cyclist to strike her from behind Oct. 14. By the time passersby called 911, the cyclist was long gone.

From http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=523656&publicationSubCategoryId=78

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MANILA, Philippines – Ever since the issue of global warming began heating up thanks to the 2006 documentary“An Inconvenient Truth,” the bicycle is being championed as one solution to climate change.

But even with the threat of extreme weather – plus rising fuel prices – people are still hesitant to use foot power. Well, you don’t want to be sweaty and smelly when you get to the office, and you don’t want to be exhausted when you start your day.

Environment advocate Ramon Castillo’s simple solution? Just give the bike a new spin. Install an electric motor.

Castillo’s Antipolo-based company, Innovatronix, is the first Filipino firm to mass produce an electric bicycle, the Exceed. Only the electric motor comes from abroad; the rest is all-Filipino.

“The e-bike, I believe, is one of the most cost effective means of motorized transportation as far as environmental foot print is concerned,” says Castillo, an electrical engineering graduate from UP Diliman. “The environment is one area where, I think, I can contribute my share. Therefore, I decided to help.” With nations now combating global warming and climate change, the environment promises to be a greener pasture.

Electric bicycles are nothing new. Even the Exceed is not the first model produced by Innovatronix. Castillo first designed an electric bike in 2004, but it sold poorly mainly because it wasn’t aesthetic enough. It was a bike with an electric motor slapped onto the rear. Only the diehard environmentalists could love it.

Innovatronix engineer Marvin Tapia says the old design also gave this imaginary fear of having your finger or foot being accidentally snagged and severed by the chain connecting the motor to the rear wheel. “So we took customers’ feedback and suggestions and designed a new bike.”

With new specifications in mind, Tapia drafted a new design on the computer. It was trial and error for six months as he sourced and tested parts. By September this year, the Exceed was ready for the road.

“We had to find the balance between what the customer wants, the availability of parts, the manufacturing cost and the selling price,” says Tapia. The result is a bike that appeals to a wider market, including women and teens. Innovatronix sells 12 units a month, compared to four with the old e-bike model.

Tapia, who takes the Exceed to and from work, says motorists often ask about it. “Instead of just passing by, they drive beside me and ask where it comes from, how much and all that,” Tapia beams with pride. “People become more impressed when I tell them that it’s Filipino-made. Kids want to joyride in it.”

And unlike the old e-bike model, the Exceed is five kilometers faster at 30 kph – and foldable. You can load it in the car trunk and go out for a spin on a picnic. You can also bring it inside the house or office and not worry about it getting stolen.

With a maximum range of 28 kilometers on a single charge – that is, on a level road surface – Castillo envisions the Exceed as an alternative for short distance travel, such as in small provincial towns where the ear-splitting, bone-rattling, smoke belching tricycle is king.

Just crunch these numbers: charging the Exceed takes about three to five hours. A tricycle ride is at least P10 – or P40 if you pay for all four seats per one-way trip. Meralco, on the other hand, charges an average P9 per kilowatt hour – and Exceed’s battery is good 28 kilometers. If your battery runs out, you can always revert to foot power.

As technology improves, Castillo predicts lighter, faster and longer-ranging e-bikes. “In probably five years’ time, we will see e-bikes that can easily travel 50 kilometers per day at almost no fuel cost.”

He also sees a longer road with the Exceed. “It is also a good stepping stone for us to learn more about technologies needed to manufacture other electric vehicles.”

Innovatronix is currently designing the “e-cart”, a small four-wheel vehicle. Castillo’s target market is businesses with warehouses that need to move items from one end to the other. “Warehouses would greatly benefit from zero emission technology because they are enclosed.”

Castillo adds that the death and destruction wrought by Ondoy showed the urgency of climate change. Towns and cities need to have more bike lanes and bicycle parking lots to make bike use more appealing.

However, changing people’s mindsets is the biggest challenge. In an effort to change one-track minds, the Light Rail Transit Authority just days ago designated “green zones” on its trains. Bikers are allowed to bring their wheels onboard, but only foldable bikes are allowed to prevent them from taking too much space.

Once people see how cost effective the e-bike is in terms of transportation cost, Castillo says we will see many practical applications. For starters, they are ideal for going around villages and for businesses serving short routes.

“Eventually, alternative charging stations will even make the e-bike more eco friendly,” Castillo says. E-bikes may be charged using solar and wind power, eliminating the need for power plants running on fossil fuel someday.

For the electric bicycle, the future only looks bright and green.

From http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/08/brompton-bicycle-folding-sales-factory –

The Brompton bicycle company is having a fashion moment – well, at least it was until last month when Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, was snapped whooshing around London on his sleek black “folder”.

The British manufacturer has been quietly raising the style stakes in the cycle lanes, as multicoloured options such as shocking-pink handlebars and “purple haze” frames win younger – and female – converts to a brand that was once the preserve of eccentric middle-aged men.

Brompton Bicycle’s managing director, Will Butler-Adams, accepts Mandelson has snuffed out any flames of fashion credibility but is nonetheless chuffed at government endorsement. “He’s had it for a bit too, because it’s not the latest, latest one,” he adds.

Mandelson is not the only one taken with his Brompton. Sales are up more than 25% this year as tweaks to the famous folding design, which starts at £600, coupled with rising bus and train fares, get people on the move.

“We made a conscious effort to introduce choice and make the bike lighter,” says Butler-Adams, whose company now offers 144 colour combinations but up to 4m permutations if other parts are included. “The principle design is the Brompton but, in terms of what you can have, the sky’s the limit.”

For a brand that is a byword in chic thanks to its pared-down technology, Brompton Bicycle’s headquarters, squashed under a motorway flyover at Kew Bridge, west London, are hardly inspiring. Any factory noise – the company makes a hundred bikes a day – are muffled by the thunder of articulated lorries overhead. But once inside, the grim anonymity of the industrial park disappears. Coloured frames in flamingo pink, apple green and cornflower blue are lined up like bonbons in a sweet shop, while racks of disembodied saddles look like they should be displayed in Tate Modern.

As Butler-Adams walks the factory floor it becomes clear he is on first-name terms with all 115 staff. Each finished bike has 16 stamps identifying the craftsmen who shaped it.

“Our patent ran out nine years ago, and if we were making this bike in Taiwan, staff turnover would mean that knowledge would be lost. Years of love have gone into our staff,” says Butler-Adams.

The bike is named after the Brompton Oratory in South Kensington, which the company’s founder, Andrew Ritchie, could see from the window of his flat as he worked on the prototype in the early 80s. And while the company spins on one intrinsic design, Brompton means different things to different nationalities. In Barcelona young urbanites whizz down the Ramblas to the sea, while in Germany it remains the preserve of the 50-something Herr.

Simon Threadkell, creative director at Fitch, a branding expert and Brompton owner, says riders of the bike make up a discrete club: “It’s like VW beetle drivers flashing their headlights at each other – there is a sense of belonging. It’s a disparate organic community.”

In Britain the club’s membership is changing, with 35-40% of Brompton customers now women. The average rider’s age has also dropped below 40.

Ben Cooper, who runs the Kinetics bike shop in Glasgow, reports a trend for “his and hers” purchasing. “Couples often buy together,” he says. “At the moment I’m doing a pink and purple one for ‘her’, while ‘his’ is a more manly sand colour.”

Working at full pelt

Brompton’s cult appeal means the brand punches well above its weight in terms of awareness. Although sales have grown by at least 20% for the past four years, it is a small player with a turnover of £10m in a UK bike market worth about £450m a year. The factory is working at full pelt but buyers must still wait 10 weeks for delivery.
Butler-Adams concedes the company may have lost market share in the fast-growing folding market but says it is not chasing volume sales. Like some other premium brands it refuses to supply the market-leading retailer, Halfords, which sells £200m worth of bikes and accessories a year, preferring to deal with bike “specialists”.

“I’d love to sell their product,” says Halfords’ chief executive, David Wild. “Folding bikes are a real area of opportunity and we are not doing as good a job as I’d like on ranging at the moment.”

And competition is increasing. Halfords has developed its own folding bikes, using its house brand, Apollo, while the Los Angeles-based Dahon is the world’s largest folding bike manufacturer.

So why not sell out to private equity and double the size of the factory in a heartbeat – or move production to Taiwan? Butler-Adams looks appalled. The company, he says, is not constrained by a lack of funds – it is debt free – but by the time is takes to train master bike builders. “Bring five new people in and it takes five to train them. There is a limit to what you can do and if you fill a factory with new people you dilute the knowledge in the business.”

Brompton has already invested close to £1m in Kew Bridge and plans to spend another £500,000 at the site, with less specialist jobs outsourced to factories in Europe and Asia. When Butler-Adams joined in 2002, Brompton made 7,000 bikes a year; this year it will be 25,000, with a target of 50,000 on the near horizon. “In two years we will be kicking arse,” he says.

Always wear your helmet! – http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010227052_helmet08m.html

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A bicycle helmet helped a young Oregon woman escape serious injury when her head was run over by a car after a collision.

Marion County sheriff’s deputies said 18-year-old Heather Wolff, of Scotts Mills, was trying to avoid hitting a car driven by 30-year-old Brandon Steinke, of Salem, when she was thrown over the handlebars of her bicycle. Her head was run over by a rear wheel of the car.

Deputies said the bike helmet was crushed but Wolff was released from Salem Hospital shortly after the Wednesday night accident.

From philstar; http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=521682&publicationSubCategoryId=63

MANILA, Philippines – The Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) has opened the trains of LRT Lines 1 and 2 to bikers with “folding bikes” to promote bimodal transport involving the use of bicycles and trains among people going around Metro Manila.

With the “Bike O2” or Bike-On, Bike-Off project, Melquiades Robles, LRTA administrator, said the Philippines was following the example of more developed countries in the promotion of cleaner and cheaper modes of transportation.

“With all the concerns over the rising price of gas and climate change, we believe that undertaking this project is not only timely but necessary,” Robles told The STAR in an interview yesterday at the launching of the project at the LRT 2’s Cubao-Araneta station.

“We want the motorists of Metro Manila to leave their vehicles at home, grab a foldable bike and ride it to their nearest LRT Line 1 or Line 2 station, and ride our trains to work,” Robles said.

Under their BO2 project, LRTA will allow commuters with folding bikes to bring their units into trains.

With the strategic locations of the stations of both LRT Line 1, which runs from Baclaran in Parañaque City to Monumento in Caloocan City; and LRT Line 2, which runs from Santolan in Pasig City to C.M. Recto Avenue in Manila, Robles said a cyclist with a folding bike only has to ride a shorter route going to his destination.

“They have a faster and cheaper means of going to work or wherever they are going and they also get a healthy exercise,” he said.

Robles added that they have set up “green zones” in each train –the last coach of every train –to accommodate the cyclist-commuter and foldable bike.

He said they will monitor the demand for space in the “green zones” in the next few weeks to determine future expansion of these areas to accommodate more commuters with folding bikes.

Robles said they are also looking into expanding the project by setting up bike parking spaces in certain stations, depending on the success of the initial phase of the BO2 project.

He said he was excited with the project’s implementation, noting that bike and environmentalist groups have rallied behind the LRTA for the project, and have come in as partners.

Enrique Pineda, president of the Firefly Brigade, a group of bikers encouraging other people to take up biking as a means of traveling, expressed total support for the BO2 project.

Bikers and members of the Firefly Brigade, the UP Mountaineers, the Padyak Project Foundation and the Tiklop Society joined Robles and Sen. Pia Cayetano yesterday on a bike-on, bike-off ride with foldable bikes to showcase the BO2 ride concept.

Pineda said that a folding bike costs as low as P3,000 to as high as P50,000 depending on the model and brand.

“You can get one brand-new for as low as P3,000 to P3,500. There are really expensive ones,” he said, adding that one can also get a second-hand folding bike for P1,900 in certain bike shops.

“Bi-modal transportation, riding our bicycles to the LRT, is a simple way of lessening our carbon footprint. Hopefully, with eventual introduction of safe bicycle parking and access of regular bicycles, this project will take off and be an instrumental climate change mitigation tool,” Pineda said.

Robles said he thought of starting the project after observing the rail transport systems in the Philippines’ neighboring developed countries in Asia such as Japan and Singapore and in many countries in Europe where bikes, folding and even regular ones, and their cyclists are allowed by train authorities.

Pineda, for his part, saw the launch as a first step in a laudable project launched by government.

“It is a very important first step. And we’re thankful to the LRTA and administrator Mel Robles for making it,” he said.

A great cause – http://www.bicycleretailer.com/post-188/world-bicycle-relief-building-bikes

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World Bicycle Relief president F.K. Day says all answers reside in the field. So I am going into the field to understand the impact of bicycles in rural communities in Africa. I’m in Zambia as part of the World Bicycle Relief Million Dollar Ride, a fundraising trip to raise money for the non-profit organization Day started almost five years ago to bring bicycles to impoverished areas to increase mobility and productivity.

Today’s program overview introduced me and the 15 others on the trip to WBR and the organizations it has partnered with to deliver bicycles to those most in need. These organizations are headed by visionary leaders who are as passionate as they are business-minded. Yet they remain unassuming, which may be their greatest strength. Rather than believing they know all the answers, they go into the communities they serve and listen to the people to determine their needs.

In the case of bicycles, most of those needs have never been met. F.K. said the existing bikes in Zambia before WBR entered the market were junk that stunted the ability of the bicycle to help people. By supplying quality bikes that are well spec’d and properly assembled, WBR can meet the needs of the end user and improve their quality of life.

F.K. Day with some of the 25 assembly workers at the TATA assembly plant in Lusaka who build WBR bikes. The bikes come from TATA India four to a box as a CKD (Complete Knockdown), completely unassembled. WBR has retooled the system so that instead of assembling a bike start-to-finish, workers have specific tasks like wheel building or frame assembly as part of an assembly line. Assemblers on average can build 100 bikes and a maximum of 120 bikes per day.

The WBR Africa headquarters. Director of African operations Dave Neiswander said it’s common in Lusaka to see old houses turned into a business office. Next door to WBR is the office for RAPIDS, with which WBR has partnered to help reach people affected by HIV/AIDS in Zambia.

As chief of party (the best title ever) for RAPIDS, Batuke Walusiku has harnessed funding from the U.S. government to train 19,800 volunteer caregivers to go into households and provide basic care for those affected by HIV/AIDS. The unpaid workers receive a bicycle through a work-to-own program—they keep the bicycle if they stay in the program for two years. That incentive has increased productivity and resulted in a 97 percent retention rate over four years.

The visionaries: Bruce Wilkinson, regional vice president of World Vision, Batuke Walusiku, chief of party for RAPIDS, F.K. Day, president of World Bicycle Relief, and David Zimberoff, director of global marketing for SRAM. WBR’s success has come through strong partnerships with established organizations like World Vision that give it access to communities in Zambia. World Vision has the imbedded relationships and local infrastructure to link WBR to the people in the communities where bikes are needed.

Assembling kits for caregivers to care for HIV/AIDS patients as well as those suffering from malaria and TB. Caregiver kits are equipped with basic supplies such as antibacterial soap, antifungal cream, pain relievers and latex gloves to help prolong the lives of those living with AIDS in Zambia. Everyone here is affected by AIDS: among adults ages 15 and 49, 14 percent have HIV/AIDS.

SRAM’s David Z builds a bike with Benjamin using a hammer to attach the cranks. The bike, which F.K. says is like an SUV, is designed to be durable, carry several hundred pounds and be easily repaired. F.K. says the goal is for the bikes to be so easy to maintain they can be fixed with a rock or a hammer.

The finished bike I built with Maybin. The single-speed, coaster-brake bike will require some getting used to as I ride it over the next few days in the field to see first-hand the three critical areas that WBR has targeted: healthcare, education and microfinance.