Trek makes bicycles for Africans
8:57 PM 2/27/04
Stephanie Turner Business reporter

Organizers of Access Africa, a program to increase sustainable transportation for Africans, credits Trek Bicycle Corp. of Waterloo with helping them develop a low-cost way to provide people throughout the continent with high-quality bikes. <

Before aligning with Trek, the program, which is run by the nonprofit Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, tried to overcome the challenges of creating a bike that could handle the rugged African terrain while being affordable to the average person there, said the institute's communication director, Lisa Peterson, by e-mail. <

When the New York-based institute approached Trek in 2001, company president John Burke offered free product design and engineering services as well as "generous terms" on manufacturing the bike at Giant Bicycle Corp. in China, where Trek makes many of its bikes, Peterson said. <

"We've been very lucky (as a company), and we'd like to give back," Burke said. "Without our help this project was going nowhere." <

The result was the California Bike, a bright yellow utilitarian six-speed mountain-hybrid with a chrome frame, puncture-resistant tires, fenders, rear rack and kickstand. <

While the bike doesn't bear the Trek logo and is lower-end than a Trek bicycle, it is a great improvement over the "poorly made bikes flooding the continent," said Walter Hook, the institute's executive director. <

The California Bike is the "Model T Ford of the bicycle," he said. "It uses two wrenches and two types of brakes. .