Originally Posted by
MEversbergII
It's also interesting that I very rarely see any trailers in use - just the rear rack and the bike frame itself - seems to be the case not only here but in places like Tibet, too.
Indeed most people just use what is available as a mass market product. I saw bikes tied together, front to rear, for carrying construction beams, but no trailers.
Originally Posted by
MEversbergII
That bamboo bike frame is rather handsome - I wonder how well it holds up over time?
The joints are saturated with resin and the coating on bamboo is presumably also resin. I rode the bike and it was light and nimble. However at the time they did not solve the problem of mounting the front derailleur - the seat tube obviously exceeds standard diameters and moreover varies from a bike to a bike. In the photo you can see a triple crankset but no derailleur. A week after I took the photo they made it into an article in a local newspaper about a trade show advertising products made in Rwanda, with a government minister talking about them as an example of what you can accomplish. Here is their website, still no derailleur there:
Rwanda Bamboo Bike