Bikes for Good
Motorcycle Medecines Small motorcycles deliver urgent medical supplies for Médecins sans Frontières
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e’ve all got used to the sight of cheap Chinese-made 125s in recent years. Invariably based on older Japanese technology, they may not have always had the best quality (though they’ve improved in recent years) but their bargain basement prices have seen these scooters and geared bikes sell like hot cakes. Leading importer Lexmoto is usually in the UK’s top five selling brands – in December 2020 it outsold everyone else, even Honda. Not just in the UK either. China exports thousands of 125, 150 and 200cc bikes to Africa, where they are appreciated for their low prices, simple rugged design and fixability. As in India and South East Asia, it’s not unusual to see them out and about carrying huge loads to market, or whole families. Many are used as short distance taxis, most famously in Nigeria, where they are known as okada. In many African countries, small geared bikes have become an essential part of the transport network, and when their use was banned in Lagos, largest city in Nigeria, for a while, the result was transport chaos as the bus alternatives failed to cope with demand. Okada are not the safest means of transport – riders tend to be young men – but there’s no denying they are part of African urban life. They are even entering the internet age, and in the last few years taxi hailing apps have sprung up – Uber for motorcycles – to meet demand. In Uganda, SafeBoda has made a name for itself as a hassle-free alternative to informal hailing while in West Africa, Max.ng, a Nigerian company, is about to scale up operations. 30
Motorcycle R I D E R
Above: Stopped for a breather – this is one of the better roads Below: 150s and 200cc trail bikes are cheap to run and good on fuel
Now there’s another vital job for these small geared bikes to do – transporting medical supplies, and not just in Africa. Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), the international aid organisation, has found that small motorcycles are sometimes the best means of getting supplies to the most inaccessible parts of the world. “Very bad roads mean it is a very difficult passage for the bikes,” said Lucille Guenier of MSF, “but often there is no passage for cars at all – that is why we use the motorcycles. For our projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Myanmar we regularly
