Bikes in Dar es Salaam

I tried to take a few pictures of some of the interesting bikes that we see here, but it’s actually very difficult because people generally do not like to have their picture taken. So I’ve been carrying the camera around in the palm of my hand and snapping photos from the hip and it works only around 10% of the time. You see all kinds of bikes being used not just for personal transportation but also for hauling goods and equipment. There are two wheel and three wheel bikes, bikes where you pedal with your feet and bikes where you pedal with our hands. There are bikes hauling produce, charcoal, wood, and there are ice cream bikes playing music (usually some old folk song like London bridges falling down…falling down). After peak oil, we might find some of these designs quite useful to replace our SUVs in the US.



Cyclists are weaving in and out of the unbelievably maddening car traffic and spumes of black exhaust here. This city would be so much nicer if there were no cars! If you’re not driving in one and you’re not riding a bike, then you’re walking down the street along the sides of the road and still dodging cars. There are few sidewalks so pedestrians are mainly walking the thin line between the parked cars along the side of the road and the traffic. We’ve found that it’s much safer to walk in the direction of the oncoming traffic so that we can avoid being sideswiped. When you step outside you have to adjust the volume of conversation to compensate for the high decibels of white noise coming from all of the automobiles.
There are quite a few bike shops and they mainly are selling Chinese bikes. These are pretty cheap heavy bikes employing some equipment last seen on the streets of Europe and the US over half a century ago. It gives the bike a classic look though. You can find bike repairmen on many corners doing pirate bike repair. Need to true your wheel? Then have it fixed by the man below on his customized truing stand made from an old bike fork. These guys know what they’re doing.