A trip to Sierra Leone 🇸🇱
The Mike’s Bikes sister shop in a busy part of the capital Freetown
The long standing invitation to visit Sierra Leone, was finally made possible thanks to generous support from Mike’s Bikes. The reason: to partake in the biggest cycling competition in the country and to visit local bike shops. Sierra Leone is located on Africa’s West Coast. It is still very much untouched and meeting other travelers (especially cyclists) is the exception rather than the rule. The event turned out to be a special gathering of local and international riders as well as returning Sierra Leoneans who had lived and worked overseas. The Mike’s Bikes Foundation began with shipping bikes to two local sister shops in Freetown back in 2018. The owners Karim and Richard have a wealth of experience and have been working with bicycles for many years. A lot of bicycles including equipment used in Sierra Leone comes from bicycle charities in the UK and the US. New bicycles and parts are available from various trading stores across Sierra Leone, however they are of poor quality, which makes 2nd hand bikes (and parts) even more popular.
Space in the capital Freetown is very limited due to the city being wedged in between the sea and mountains. The results are astronomically high rents for living and commercial space. Hence Karim decided to relocate to Lunsar, a mining town about 100 km North-East of Freetown, which meant not only more affordable rental prices but also more space to expand the bicycle project. Karim’s bicycle repair shop grew into a hub and supported the emergence of the Lunsar bicycle team, which still remains the largest club in the country today.
The Tour de Lunsar is a multi-day road stage race in Sierra Leone and was first carried out in 2015. It hosted teams from Lunsar and Freetown incl. juniors and women. It was truly inspiring to witness how many donated bicycles are being used for development, training and racing. The Mike’s Bikes Foundation supports bicycle shops with 2nd hand bicycles, donated by customers in the US. An important condition is that the shipping costs are refinanced through sales. This way the flow of bicycles to each sister shop becomes sustainable without additional financing for freight costs.
In Sierra Leone doing business has become extra tough, mostly caused by soaring inflation (measured at around 100% over the last 3 years, or 25% per annum). In order to keep our projects afloat under such uncertain conditions, we try to make each container as valuable as possible. We introduced a new packing method in order to fit more bikes into each container and we raised the minimum quality standards of bicycle donations. We are now able to fit at least 400 bicycles in a 40ft shipping container together with gear incl. parts and tools.
Jack Duncan and Nate Mesmer from Team Mikes Bikes hand over two donated Cannondale CAAD 13 bikes to the Lunsar Cycling Team at the finish of Tour de Lunsar 2023. Photo credits (above and below): Matt Grayson
