In January 2008 Rock The Bike stepped up to distribute the Mundo Utility Bicycle in the US. Aside from wanting to offer our customers a sturdy, affordable, and highly customizable way to carry their stuff on a bicycle, I also had a personal reason to carry the Mundo.
Between 2002 and 2007, while Rock the Bike was ramping up, I ran the nonprofit Worldbike, which was based in the same Berkeley workshop community as our current headquarters. During that time, Worldbike conducted a major trial market of the low cost Big Boda in Western Kenya, and received some major accolades, including appearances in the Smithsonian Design Museum, WIRED, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times online editions.
A major part of Worldbike's mission is to challenge the bike industry to take seriously the needs of customers in the developing world. Unfortunately, when Worldbike was founded in 1999 (and when I took the reigns in 2002), there wasn't a single manufacturer making high-quality load-carrying bicycles for the developing world. Now, in 2008, there are at least 4. And Worldbike directly inspired two of them (Tom Ritchey and Yuba Bicycles, creators of the Mundo) with a prototype that's currently on display Smithsonian's Design for the Other 90% exhibit. In 2003 Worldbike pulled in a team of product designers that included WorldChanging blogger Jeremy Faludi, Nate Byerley (also known as the Juice Pedaler, and the current leader of Xtracycle), as well as local welders Gian Bongiorno, and Dave Strain.
I had the honor of personally bringing the Worldbike prototype to Kenya for use in our Big Boda trial market in 2006.
Ben Sarrazin of Yuba was a long-time Worldbike supporter and fan, and formed Yuba to take the Worldbike concept to the market. Going from a one-off prototype to a factory produced utility bicycle is easier said than done. In addition to simplifying and improving the design, Yuba added features such as a full compliment of braze-on eyelets and mounts, and strengthened the frame with larger diameter steel tubing. Yuba has also held true to the Worldbike mission of focusing on the needs of developing world customers. 20% of Yuba's bikes sold to date have been shipped to Africa, and Yuba works with NGO's like Jugendhilfe to make the bicycles as affordable as possible when used for charitable purposes.
Now that the Mundo is available in the US, you too can ride and own a piece of this story. When you cruise through your community carrying boxes, kids, and gear, you'll be staying true to the spirit of Worldbike and paying respect to bike people in Africa and beyond.