Marijke Overeen and Dian van Unen

The Bicycle in Zimbabwe

Homepage Manual Contents Navigation

Sales and maintenance

There are three wholesalers in Harare and two in Bulawayo, specialized exclusively in the supply of bicycles and spare parts to retailers.

Other wholesalers in towns sell other goods besides bicycles and spare parts.

Bicycle retailers are to be found in all larger towns, Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare, Gweru, Kwe-Rwe, and Masvingo. They sell bicycles, do the repairs and stock the necessary spare parts. Mr. Lieberman of CACI is convinced these shops make a living out of this. Some of them, however, have to sell other goods besides bicycles to keep going. The shop in Masvingo is an example.

The number of bicycle retailers has declined considerably : in 1933 there were about 28 spread the country; by 1983 there were only 7 left.

Supermarkets also sell the usual makes and a small assortment of spares: pedals, chainwheels, tyres and lamps.

In both the towns and rural areas there are general stores which also sell bikes and a small or even sometimes quite wide assortment of spares. They will also order spares not in stock.

Metalworkshops and welding shops combine bicycle repair with trailer manufacture and welding things like fences and windowframes. We found these workshops in towns, at busstations and roadcentres, rural centres and growth-points.

We met individual craftsmen who did nothing but repair and reassemble bicycles. In Mbare we found a street full of metalworkshops and bicycle repairers. The bicycle repaires worked mostly in twos and could only just scrape a living together. The reasons being fluctuating demand (people lacking money due to the drought), the competition of other bicycle repairers and the lack of spare parts.

In the bicycle retailer shops, the number of mechanics employed, varies from 2 to 10 per workshop.

In Mrewa-district we visited a man who made second hand bicycles out of old frames and spare-parts and, where necesary, new parts. Combined with his earnings from his plot of land he makes a living out of it. He mainly gets his 'raw material' (old frames) from traders in Harare. His spares come from stores in Mrewa and Harare, the latter cheaper.

We were told that in the rural areas there are many bicycle repairers like him, some of them 'apostles'. We are not sure whether he is representative of repairers and crafts people in other rural areas of Zimbabwe.

Bicycle repair is done by workers with inedequate tools and without necessary stocks of spare-parts. They do not posses any qualification as bicycle mechanics. Often repairs return to the shops because they were badly done. The shops we visited still couldn't keep up with their repairwork, however.

The lack of specialized tools, can also explain the inadequate repair technique. Nobody has a chain-punch or a sprocket extractor and a centering iron (for trueing wheels) is rare. jigs were quite common. The possession of a thread cutter for spokes, bracket clearing taps and a thread cutter for the steering columns were practically unknown although they would be of inestimable value for repairs.

The main reason for malfunctioning of the bottom bracket is damaged to the thread within the B.B. shell. The only way to repair this in Zimbabwe is to restore the thread somehow. The other B.B. system: Thompson brackets is unknown. They are not imported anymore.

Bottom brackets are repaired by covering the shell thread with brazing material and then cutting new thread. Other repairers just narrowed the whole shell by hammering on it roughly till the b.B. cup was jammed into the shell.

Both of the methods are inadequate and represent a short-term repair.

Some shops didn't even have such a threadtapping tool. Consequently they had to throw away the whole bicycle frame which meant that customers had to buy a whole new frame for about 45 dollars.

The description above stems mainly from interviews with bicycle shops and repairers in town. In the townships and rural areas the repairs are carried out under even worse conditions.

But even under these bad conditions people are able to find very creative solutions for technical problems. Where there is no tool they find one: the frontfork as a wheel jig, where they lack a spare-part they try and find any solution: a coaster brake hub is put in a front wheel, for instance.

Prices of bicycles and spare-parts have risen very fast. In 1960 bicycles cost about 30 dollars. In 1983 it's difficult to buy a bicycle for less than 150 dollars, which is why, according to several informants, people don't buy bicycles.

The 'local' makes like Kudu, Hercules and Impala cost about 30 dollar less than the British makes Raleigh, Humber, Rudge and Phillips, produced under licence. The latter cost about 265 dollar. Owners of two bicycle shops complained about the inferior quality of the 'local' makes, especially the frame. After repeated complaints to the manufacturer CACI, there was some improvement. (6). CACI itself states that 1 or 2 out of every 1000 new bicycle frames break. The Zimbabwean made frames break less often than the frames of imported bicycles. (7)

Whether frame breakage is due to inferior quality or to overloading and rough roads is difficult to say. Broken frames are brazed together again whether the breakage is near the bottom-bracket shell or the head shells. The brazed point usually holds out for two months depending on how the bicycle is treated. (8)

The spare parts needed to repair bicycles were scarce in all the workshops we visited. In the township workshops (Mbare) it was even usual to ask customers to bring their own spare parts with them. The reason for this also being lack of cash to buy a stock of parts.

Other complaints about non-availability of spareparts centred around coaster brakes, B.B. axles, tyres, patches and spokes, all imported spares. Various shopkeepers told us they only get a ration of the goods ordered at CACI.

CACI itself complained about its low foreign currency ration, which is the reason for cutting stocks and imports of expensive parts such as 3 speed hubs and spare bracket axle.

The reason given for the shortage of tyres was that a large amount of the tyres, being produced by Dunlop are destined for export. Patches are in the process of being manufactured locally, but the production still has not reached the level needed. Coaster brakes are rationed by the factory and the spare-parts needed to repair this hub are scarce or completely unavailable. (9)

Wholesalers are also entitled to import certain parts and even bicycles with a certain amount of foreign currency. They tried to avoid the rationing by importing coaster-brake hubs themselves. The result was either that twice the price was paid for the same Czech hub (Favorit), due to trading through South Africa; or careless ordering of a 36 spokes-hub instead of the usual 40 spokes hub; or the ordering of a unrepairable hub from Taiwan.