Ethiopia: Bicycle Accessories

To continue my sporadic series of Ethiopia facts and stories, here is a little something about Ethiopians and their bicycles.  Pretty much the only bicycle you'll find in Ethiopia is a Phoenix. Why? Because they are cheap and parts are interchangeable.  A lot of Peace Corps countries supply volunteers with a decent mountain bicycle, but in Ethiopia they just give you a "bike allowance" to purchase one yourself.  The best explanation is because they realized also that parts for repairing bicycles other than a Phoenix were rare.

My friend Kyle managed to figure out the bicycle things though. Check out his AWESOME adventure here.  He journeyed from the lowest point to the highest point on the African continent. How many people can say that?

Back to the focus on my blog today: bicycle accessories.  Ethiopian tend to have an odd sense of decorating style, and I believe taking a look at their bicycles pretty much sums it up. Like the flowers? They also usually have incredible bike seat covers made out of some odd carpet material with fringe.  If you look closely in Kyle's Kilimanjaro summit picture you can see it!

A wonderfully decorated bike in Ethiopia.

And another one all dolled up!