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Anybody ever ride one...we are putting together an idea for going to Bangladesh (flat and heavily biked) buying a cycle rickshaw and going across the country on it.

I know that they are used as Taxis for short trips, just can't find any info on how they ride or how difficult they get for a 50 mile day.

Anybody who has been down that way and thinks this idea is genius/undoable, or anything else is appreciated (though, don't think we can be talked out of it)

thanks

jeff

StephenH

An interesting concept, don't know if it's a good idea or not.

A while back, I bought an Arpan bicycle, disassembled, and put it together. It is basically a copy of older Raleigh bikes. Cottered cranks, rod brakes, single speed. Rims are welded steel, but weren't perfectly round at the weld. Front rod brake wouldn't easily fit. Came with coaster rear brake, which works, but is not a very good hub. The seat is a copy of a Brooks, only the springs were soft enough to bend, and the cover is hard plastic, not leather. Tubes that came with it were Dunlop valve, not Schrader.

Do you see where this is going? I suppose the quality of Indian bikes varies some from manufacturer to manufacturer (and not all of Arpan's models have the "old" features like this). But a good pedicab in the US is about $1,800 or so. You should be able to get some of these Indian ones there for maybe a couple of hundred. But, don't expect $1,800 worth of quality. It would really really help to spend several days doing local riding with it prior to setting out. It would really help to have a local bike shop that was thoroughly familiar with these things, and also customer-oriented (I have no idea what attitudes are there). And be sure you take all the tools you might need and some spare parts with you if setting off cross country. And those tools are not necessarily what you'd need for a modern American bike.

I would be curious how the roads are out of the towns. If roads are narrow and the traffic is mainly trucks and cars, pedicab could be a real hazard.

You can carry the driver plus two or three people in a pedicab, but only one can pedal at a time. It might actually work better just to buy a bike for each person simply to spread the labor out.

I've only seen pedicabs in use one time, down in Houston, and there they were pretty much going at walking speed.

I don't know exactly how the Indian bike industry works. My bike came completely disassembled, including the wheels not being built (although hubs were assembled). I suspect what happens is that when they ship bikes from China to the US, they can assemble stuff a whole lot cheaper in China than in the US, so they assemble all of it they can at the factory. But selling in India, the local bike shop can probably do all this work at the same wage scale the manufacturer can, so it gets shipped knocked down. That's my theory. I don't know if people normally buy them like that or buy them assembled (I assume assembled).

jsmithepa

Surely there are other chanllenges that are more fun.

Wus' the logic here?

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We're not taking this up as a biking challenge as much as what feels like a really fun way to see a country (Bangladesh) that from what from we can tell is very friendly and welcoming to what few visitors they receive. We could easily bring bikes set up four touring, but in a nation of bicycle rickshaws, it really just seems fun to travel the way the locals do, (admittedly, my ideas of fun tend to be involve slow and painful travel)

Stephen, the roads are one of the things we were wondering about ourselves, less the width (there's always just enough room by a centimeter, it seems, no matter where you go) , but the condition of the roads...pitted and pocked on a rickshaw may suck.

The pictures we have seen seems to be of cities and towns teeming with these things, on main roads in Dhaka, 4 lanes filled w nothing but rickshaws...we will be bringing tools, (and the ability to do most repairs) and near as we can tell, we should be able to buy a used one for $300. They are small, one of us and our bags will fit snugly. The few days testing the idea out is one we will probably do, no biggie trying, failing, and taking boats around instead...just really hoping to get an idea of what we may be in for.

StephenH

On Youtube, I've seen some videos of India street scenes that show a bunch of pedicabs. But I've seen other videos that showed street scenes with lots of traffic and no pedicabs anywhere. So I don't know how universally they're used. And of course, once you get out of the cities, they may be pretty uncommon, especially if they're mainly used for hire.

Other things being equal, I'd try to buy a new one rather than used in hopes of limiting potential repairs. I think there are a number of Indian manufacturers that make them. One other thing to check is whether local dealers stock these or just order on demand.

Just in putting my bike together, I made a cotter press and filed out a tool for the adjustable bottom bracket. Also bought one of those two-prong bearing adjustment tools and a spoke wrench. I think all the bearings in the bike used loose balls. Tires seem to be fine, but they're odd sizes. So it can be a little different.

You might try hunting up travel sites and see if you can get more input on road conditions.

I know a couple of people that have been in India, but don't know what parts of the country.