When we imagine the future, it’s not filled with spaceships zooming through massive neon cities. Instead, people are riding around on bicycles through neon-green forests. It doesn’t sound like an episode of Meet the Robinsons, but for hundreds of countries globally, this is their bright and shining future: an economically sufficient society transported by sustainable development. We are honored to help make that goal attainable with simple gifts, bicycles.
World Bicycle Relief is the organization for which we have chosen to fund raise during for all of our bicycle tours. On our Cairo-to-Cape Town ride, we saw their work in action. In Lusaka, Zambia we witnessed the strong teamwork of the assembly facility that has put our 200+ donated bicycles into the hands of schoolchildren and health workers in the area.
Each one of these bikes helps change the lives of developing Zambian communities.
And as we rode through the countryside, we saw hundreds of people on the branded WBR Buffalo Bicycles. Even for the 5 kilometres for kids to school in the morning or health workers to visit non-ambulatory patients, a bicycle can save an hour’s grueling walk. That’s adding 3 weeks of time a year. We rode alongside as they made their commutes, and made their way toward improving their villages. All around the world, this organization has created stories of possibility.
We know as well as anyone how efficient the bicycle is at overcoming distance. It becomes the perfect tool for increasing mobility, reducing pollution, and increasing public health. As important as they are in the developing world, we believe bicycles can make as incremental of a difference in already-developed nations. So when I imagine the future, it’s not the chrome filled, sci-fi world of the newest gadgets. It’s a world of bicycles.
Locos Ciclos 