#4 5,000km &
Bamboo BIKE
One of my most recent and challenging great life projects. This is the story of how I built a bamboo bicycle with my own hands and rode more than five thousand kilometers, four countries over four months.
With the boat I had seen a lot of the coast and islands of Southeast Asia, but I had had little experience in the interior of the country. When I thought about how to make this trip, I didn't feel like just getting in the car and driving. I wanted to do it in a sustainable way, so I decided the best way to do it was by bike. I could go everywhere depending only on me and my body's energy. It doesn't get any more sustainable than that. Or will it stay?
I have always had a lot of interest in the area of construction using sustainable materials. After spending almost 4 years in Southeast Asia I had already fallen in love with the works that were made of bamboo. It was then that I had the brilliant idea of building my bike with bamboo.
After a lot of research I ended up deciding to make the bike myself. There were no people who could make one of these for me. But I had never worked with bamboo, let alone built a bike from scratch. It couldn't be just any bike, I can't ride more than an hour on a conventional bike due to a herniated disc that I acquired surfing in Florianópolis. The tricycle would be ideal for this project.
This was one of the biggest challenges of my life, because it was about building the world's first 100% bamboo and natural fiber tricycle. I searched a lot on the internet to find some models and references, but I couldn't find any that weren't a traditional bike.
After the turn of the year, January 2017, I officially started this project. I had the incredible opportunity, on the project launch day, to have more than 30 friends who took their bikes, called friends, cousins, neighbors and started the project with me. I was accompanied for the first 25 kilometers and the emotion was great. In all, 5,000 kilometers were cycled, an average of 120kms per day for four months.
Living with simple, kind and very hospitable people was transformative. Even with language as a major barrier, as many of them did not speak English, there was no lack of willingness and goodwill to try to understand gestures and help me. I made friends and accumulated stories that I will remember for the rest of my life. Knowing the interior, such simple people, but with such a beautiful soul made me see even more the value of the little things in life.