Bikes For Congo

As I was working on resurrecting the Fuji from scrap parts, I was watching Bill Moyers on PBS. He was doing a show about food aid for Congo. It seems that the best way to transport tons of relief food into the inner parts of the country is by bicycle. There aren't enough trucks, they aren't reliable, and there are lots of people with bicycles willing to ride the food aid (seven TONS of it on 70 bicycles--hm, is that possible? That's 200 lbs per bike. Perhaps making multiple trips?)

Anyway, they use bicycles to deliver humanitarian aid. So there I was with a wreck of a bike, patching it together so that it could be ridden again, and I thought, there should be a way to get other junker bicycles to countries like Congo, where they are needed.

Every large university in the country has hundreds of abandoned bikes, many of which they almost give away. It doesn't take that much to get those bikes rideable. They might not have 27 gears and the wheels might be a little out of true, but really, a single speed with working brakes and a sturdy frame would be put to good use in a place where they're needed.

I should start a "Bikes for Peace and Prosperity" foundation. Encourage bike riding in the U.S. to reduce our insane use of oil, and get bikes to countries like the Congo. Probably not going to happen. Still, it's a pretty good idea. Maybe when I'm fired from my job.

In any case, when I'm feeling like a nut case for obsessing about bikes and bike riding, a story like the Congo one reminds me that there's something fundamentally right about bike riding. Although most of us ride for light recreation or exercise, and so never completely grasp it, being able to propel ourselves at 15 mph, even carrying a 50 lb load, really is a marvel.