Taking 5 bikes to Malawi!

GT Destroyer

Need your thoughts and help on this.

I am working through the possibility of buying 5 bikes here in the UK, then shipping out to Malawi, for guided tours. The terrain is friendly, so no massive DH or technical riding, mainly flat trail-based stuff.

The place in question has no cycle related equipment at the moment, and being in Malawi, you can't just nip to Halfords to buy a new chain etc....

So I need to start a list of spares I would recommend to take over,

Tyres
Inner tubes
Chains
Brake pads
Cables - Gears and brakes
Rear mechs
Pumps
Patches for flats
Oils

What else am I missing? (there'll be loads, but its early days)

Also tools, Im going to need to be able to repair almost anything that goes wrong with the bikes out there, what should I recommend to buy in terms of tools.

Its a big project, and if it comes off will be amazing.

Anyone shipped bikes out to Africa before?

Thanks for reading.

Mojo_666

Mech Hangers.
Tools

specialeyes

Shed load of power links!
Maybe kit them out with some superstar lock on grips and take some spare grip inners as they will wear.

delcol

work stand/stands. a decent tool kit.
possabily something like this..
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=17714

what about things like spare bearings & bottom brackets..

what sort of mileage do you expect the bikes to cover each week ?

MountainMonster

Lots of tubes, lots of spare links, probably like 10 spare chains, enough oil to last a year or 2, a work stand, professional all inclusive tool kit, maybe 20 spare sets of brake pads, lots of spare cables, 1 portable pump and 1 track pump.

All I can think of as well right now, but I would focus more on the things that are very cheap to buy, are wearable parts, and ones you couldn't justify paying shipping on. I wouldn't really take a large stock of mechs or anything, as the price is high enough that you could semi justify shipping to Malawi from the UK for those, but it would not be worth it for spare links or cables for instance.

Anonymous

GT Destroyer wrote:

you can't just nip to Halfords to buy a new chain etc....

Probably a good thing. They'd only sell you the wrong chain anyway and probably chuck in some GT85 to "oil" it too

That's when you've found the right monkey who knows what a bike chain is. A bike for that matter.

cooldad

Pies.
And some helmets, gloves etc. Got to look after the punters.

Chunkers1980

Buy 7 of exactly the same bikes, tools to fit them, loads of oil and grease and the pure consumables to last 2 years for each.

allen.coulson

I've got a place in Gambia and the key to it is have a very simple but sturdy bike. There are local experts - qualified bike mechanics and you can get most components there albeit cheap Chinese. Certainly in Gambia they can do most things but are not familiar with shocks or forks. One stripped down, repaired and rebuilt my 7 spd shimano shifter!The only fail that I had was spokes - because of the sea - they rusted. Remember that in the underdeveloped world bike travel is commonplace and there are people to fix them. I cn't spk for E Africa but certainly no need to lose sleep over this in W Africa.

GT Destroyer

delcol wrote:

work stand/stands. a decent tool kit.
possabily something like this..
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=17714

what about things like spare bearings & bottom brackets..

what sort of mileage do you expect the bikes to cover each week ?

Not sure if that would be too much, overkill or not? Also as its brand new not sure how many miles each week, I dont think it would be loads, as its a quiet chilled out place, no real tourists as such, just travellers/backpackers.

GT Destroyer

well........e-mails have gone out to all the usual suspects, appreciate all your help in this thread, and will keep you posted as to how things go