Peter van Balen

The Bicycle in Nicaragua: A Field Experience

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Ing. Peter van Balen
September 1987

TU Delft - Delft University of Technology, Netherlands

CICAT
Centre for International Co-operation and Appropriate Technology

Presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board,
13 January 1988, Washington D.C.

Excerpt from: Bicycle Reference Manual for Developing Countries. Edited by Barbara Gruehl Kipke, April 1991.

Working and living for a year in Nicaragua, I have found to my cost the impact of the transport problems on everyday life.
A society with inadequate transport not only "stands still", but also goes "downhill". Therefore, I hope the gained experiences will lead to some alleviation of Nicaragua's transport problems.

For the realization of this paper I am grateful to Jaap Kolpa for his photo's, Sander Kleiman for halftone printing, Paul Alehuis for his useful remarks, and Marja van Oost for typing this paper.

Delft, September 1997
Peter van Balen

In Central America, and not only there, transport of men and goods depend largely upon motorized means of transport, with all their advantages and disadvantages.
Especially in Nicaragua, with an oil-import of 100% and a North American economic boycott since May 1985, the transport problem is most serious.

The Sandinista government tries, as long as the economic situation permits her to do so, to subsidize public transport as much as possible. Thus affordable for (almost) everybody, this is no solution for the other part of the transport problem: "No hay transporte" ("there is no transport"). In everyday-life this widely heard slogan means waiting for a bus for two hours or more, not being sure if any will pass. Once the bus comes, and it happens to stop (most of them, overcrowded, pass with an average speed of 25 mph), the survival-of-the-fittest struggle to get on the bus begins. If you are lucky you end up hanging at the back or sitting on top of the bus.

Because of the continuous war more than half of the national budget is being spent on defence, so in the past two years the government has been forced to pursue a policy of more realistic prices. In 18 months' time bus fares increased tenfold or more, while the average income only doubled. Furthermore, gasoline and diesel are being rationed more tightly every week. Hard currency - indispensable for oil, lubricants, spare parts and new vehicles - is so scarce, that even maintaining the current - insufficient - transport capacity appears not realistic.

All the above mentioned tendencies together lead to a worsening transport situation in Nicaragua. Therefore the Sandinista government has to find alternatives less dependent on hard currency. Since 1983 the government has shown an interest in the bicycle as a potential means of solving part of the transport problems of its people.

In this paper I will try to explain how the bicycle, provided that the government and foreign (non-) governmental organizations co-operate, may prove an appropriate means of transport for the majority of the Nicaraguan people.

To illustrate the possibilities for the bicycle as a successful means of transport, as well as the problems that may rise when a bicycle promotion project is introduced. I have outlined the experiences of a bicycle assembly project in Nicaraqua (Region IV). This project was set up by a Swiss NGO called Sofonias, and technically supported by CICAT (Centre for International Co-operation and Appropriate Technology) of the Delft University of Technology (DUT), in the Netherlands.

Table 1: Bicycle Imports
Missing table. Please write me an email, if you are interrested in this table

Photo 1: Glenn Fiscella in the workshop of 'Bikes Not Bombs' (J.Kolpa)
Missing photo. Please write me an email, if you are interrested in this photo

This consists of transport by ox-cart, horse, mule, carriage, barrow, bicycle, and on foot. Though hardly mentioned in any statistics (except figures about bicycle-imports), non-motorized transport is accountable for the majority of trips people make, mainly by foot (55 - 80%) (source 1). In rural areas of Nicaragua ox-carts and horses are still widely used, especially for carrying cargo: drums of water, sacks of corn or beans. Barrows are often used for boxes, crates of beer or softdrinks, fruit and vegetables, firewood, etc.. The bicycle is widely seen too, mainly for personal transport (e.g. to and from one's work or school), especially in the flatter urban areas (Malaya, Granada, Rivas, Chinandega, Leon).
In the rest of this chapter I will concentrate on the role of the bicycle in this "informal" transport sector of Nicaragua.

1. The bicyle

   For extensive discussion about the possible role of the bicycle in Latin America, I like to recommend Navarro's standard work: "La bicicleta y los triciclos" (source 2); many of the aspects he discusses apply to Nicaragua as well. People in Managua for instance, often mention the dangers of cycling in the capital, due to reckless driving of many of the bus-, truck- and car-drivers. Other reasons mentioned for not using a bike are the hills in some parts of Managua, and sometimes the heat.
   What role the bicycle has played in the past fifteen years is partly illustrated in table 1, which shows the official bicycle imports since 1971 (source 9). Privately importing from neighbouring countries (especially Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico) accounts for some extra hundreds of bicycles a year. Though not 100% reliable, it shows us a steadily increasing demand until 1977. In the FINAPRI-report (source 3) this is called "natural demand", because in that pericd US-dollars were freely obtainable, so the normal market forces determined the demand (and import). Under those conditions present demand could be 10,000 - 15,000 bicycles per year, especially when locally assembled bikes would lower the prices (source 3). In recent years, people bought dollars on the blackmarket to avoid the official importers, who did not get permission to buy dollars for bicycle imports.
   Table 1 also shows that in the past fifteen years about 50,000 bicycles have been imported officially; together with "grey" imports and failings in the statistics the figure may be 60,000.
   Assuming that in these years low average quality, lack of maintenance and, especially since 1981, shortage of spare parts created a type of cannibalism not uncommon in developing countries, the present bicycle potential may have been reduced to 20,000 - 40,000. This implies 6 - 12 bicycles per 1000 inhabitants. This is rather low compared to some other Latin American countries (Mexico: 155, Brazil: 139, Colombia: 91, Argentina: 159), though Chili (21) and Venezuela (15) are in the same position (source 5). In neighbouring countries (Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador) "fun-bikes" (racing-bike, mountain-bike, BMX, etc.) are more popular than ordinary bikes. In Nicaragua it is the ordinary bike, that is seen most; mainly used for commuter traffic, not just for recreation (source 4).
   In 1986, Jaap Kolpa, a student at the University of Amsterdam, did an investigation into the role of the bicycle in Nicaragua (source 4). The main conclusions were:
   
   

   • a wide range of bicycles brands was still operational; 42% of all bicycles was a Raleigh;
   • 61% of the cyclists travelled 1 - 10 kilometers a day;
   • 91% used their bicycle to go to work or school, 33% for recreation and 32% for shopping or going to the market;
   • 41% of the bicycles had been bought new, 59% were used;
   • 50% of the first owners had their bicycle 0 - 2 years, 25% 3 - 10 years, 24% more than 10 years;
   • 30% of the used bicycle owners had their bicycle 0 - 2 years, 48% 3 - 10 years, 22% more than 10 years;
   • 71% of the cyclists did not live near a repair-shop;
   • 83% of the cyclists could not obtain sufficient spare parts;
   • the average price for a tube varied (from city to city) between the equivalent of US$ 5 - 11 (or 3 - 6 black-market dollars);
   • the average price for a tyre varied between US$ 9 - 20 (or 5 - 11 blackmarket dollar);
   • 14% of the cyclists was under 20, 60 % between 20 and 40, 25% over 40.

2. Major problems for transport by bicycle
   • Imports in recent years have been very low, because of government restrictions, who minimized the quota of dollars for bicycle imports.
   • Imports of spare parts have been reduced even more drastically, thus reducing the existing bicycle potential.
   • Road safety is low, especially in Managua, where the bicycle could be used by hundreds of thousands of people.
   • A "tradition of maintenance" is not known in Nicaragua, therefore many bicycles are unnecessarily out of order.
   • Prices are often too high for people with lower-incomes, because of speculation and the lack of an instalment system.
   • Some imported bicycles are of impermissible low quality, thus undermining the status of a bicycle, which is rather good compared to other Latin American countries.
   • Co-ordination in bicycle promoting activities is very poor, thus unnecessarily wasting a lot of resources (both money and energy wise).

3. Recent bicycle promoting activities

   A part from the small import-quotes assigned by the government, almost all activities have come from abroad. In recent years donations of bicycles arrived from a dozen countries including Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and the USA. The Eastern bloc donated shipments of bicycles as well (e.g. the Soviet Union and East Germany).
   The first structural improvement was the opening of a bicycle repair-shop in Managua by the US-based "Bikes not bombs" (BNB) group, a project of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) based in Washington DC.
   BNB started their assembly and repair shop (see photo 1) in March 1985, assembling Semi Knocked Down (SKD) bicycles donated by US-citizens. BNB have sent more than 1,000 bicycles to Nicaragua, and donated them to teachers and health workers.
   The installation of a workshop run by US - and sometimes Canadian -volunteers, who train Nicaraguans and Guatemalan refugees to be bicyclemechanics, together with the availability of spare parts, has already proved this project to be successful.
   Another project, associated with the BNB-project, was the start of a co-operative for manufacturing bicycle-frames. This co-operative was founded in Esteli, a major city in the north of Nicaragua, supported by the Alliance for Communities in Action (a non-profit association of former US Peace Corps Volunteers) Altogether they built about 60 bicycles, but poor quality of the locally produced tubes forced them to stop the project.
   In the next chapter I will extensively describe a third initiative, the so-called Sofonias-project, based in Region IV, the (flat) southwest corner of Nicaragua. This project started in November 1985 (source 6 and 7).
   By the end of 1986 the Ministry of Transport (MITRANS) bought about 3,000 Completely Knocked Down (CKD) bicycles in China (brand: Flying Pigeon), and had them assembled by hardly skilled mechanics of a former motorcycle import-company; 7,000 Flying Pigeon's are reportedly on their way.
   The city of Mannheim (West Germany) declared to support a - yet to be started - bicycle assembly project in Region II (probably in El Viejo, near Chinandega). An amount of US$ 22,000 has been mentioned.
   The EEC donated (in 1987) 500 (Portugese) bicycles, of reportedly inferior quality, with another 500 to come. They arrived SKD and were assembled by volunteers at the BNB workshop in Managua. The bicycles are meant for workers of MIDINRA, the Ministry of Agrarian Reform.
   A Swedish campaign called "1000 Bikes for Nicaragua" recently delivered their first half of this number.
   The Nicaraguan Minister of Transport recently announced that 50,000 bicycles would be imported over the next five years, including 14,000 in 1987. Rumours are going that the bicycles will be supplied by the Soviet Union.

   Photo 2: Manual assembling (J.Kolpa)
   Missing photo. Please write me an email, if you are interrested in this photo

1. Origin of the project

   In 1983 the Gobierno Regional (Regional government) of Region IV started the idea of promoting the use of bicycles. Grupo Sofonias, a Swiss nongovernmental organization, was asked to set up a local production line. Sofonias requested SKAT, the Swiss Centre for Appropriate Technology (linked to the University of St. Gallen), for know-how to produce a sturdy bicycle in Nicaragua. By then a two year study (source 2) done by Ricardo Navarro (et alii) for SKAT had made it clear that large bicycle manufacturers were basically assembly lines. Both in developed countries (like the Netherlands, Great Britain, West Germany) and in developing countries (India, China), they only produced the bicycle-frame themselves, buying the parts from supply companies, and assembling them.
   Given the limited financing (by HEKS, the Swiss Evangelic Interchurch Aid) and the uncertain market prospects, it was concluded that the best strategy would be to start at a small scale, setting up hand assembly workshops and using CKD-bicycles; frame-production could be started after some years.
   Navarro proposed, after visiting several CKD-bicycle manufacturers in Ludhiana (India), to order two containers (one Hero, one Atlas), each containing about 650 CKD-bicycles, 5 - 10$ spare parts and 4 sets of tools to assemble the bicycles. A third container with about 7,000 spare tyres and tubes, 2,000 patch rolls and 4,000 tube repair kits was ordered from Shawney Rubber Industries (India). The letters of credit were opened in May and July 1985, and the containers were due to arrive from October 1985 onwards. Navarro was contracted by Sofonias (financed by HEKS) for a period of three months (November 1985 - January 1986) to start the project.
   At Navarro's request, the Centre for International Co-operation and Appropriate Technology (CICAT) of the Delft University of Technology (DUT) deployed their technician Peter van Balen for one year in the project, to ensure long term assistance, which is absolutely necessary for good results in any project.

2. Project description

   Below you will find some basic assumptions of the original proposal (1984).
   
   

   • The regional government wants to promote the use of bicycles, especially to raise the efficiency of a part of their civil departments. (mailmen; readers of gas-, water- and electricity meters; staff of health centres and rural education centres).
   • The donor (HEKS) stimulates the South-South relation, therefore endorsing the decision to buy Indian CKD-bicycles.
   • Bicycle assembly will be done in small scale workshops with simple tools (photo 2).
   • A dozen Nicaraguans (chosen by the regional government) are to be trained as bicycle mechanics by Sofonias; furthermore, the training of an administrator and a technical supervisor/manager.
   • Salaries will be paid by the regional government.
   • The training will be done in Jinotepe, where the central workshop will be situated.
   • After the training period, the mechanics will work in a team of three, in the four district capitals of region IV: Jinotepe, Masaya, Granada and Rivas.
   • The bicycles (black 22" Gents roadsters, with 28" x 1.5" tyres), though formally donated to the regional government, will be sold. The revenues will be used for importing new CKD-bicycles, thus making the project more or less self-supporting.
   • Two thirds of the bicycles will be sold through official channels to priorized groups; one third will be sold to the public.
   • Project supervision will be done by the regional government in cooperation with Sofonias.
   • The regional government expressed her willingness to allocate US$ 50,000 -100,000 for changing the revenues (cordobas) of the sold bicycles, thus maintaining the project.

   Once the project had started, several issues were still being discussed and decided. The most important are mentioned below:
   
   

   • The Nicaraguans to be trained were to be injured war "veterans"; some of them were not yet 20 years old.
   • At first the regional government lowered her exchange-allocation to US$ 30,000, later on they withdrew any guarantee because of structural shortage of hard currency.
   • A bicycle assembly enterprise (Empresa Ensambladora de Bicicletas) was founded, which managed the assembly process, the sale, the administration and finances. Overall control is done by the regional government (Ministry of Industry).
   • The regional government wants to see the first two months as a training-period, thus they do not pay the mechanics until mid January 1986.

   Photo 3: The central workshop in Jinotepe
   Missing photo. Please write me an email, if you are interrested in this photo

3. Project activities

   November 1985	The first (Hero) container, with 109 boxes of six CKD bicycles, arrived in Jinotepe; also spare parts and tools. Sanitary fittings and electricity were installed in the workshop and storage rooms. An assembly manual was written and distributed.
   December 1985	The second shipment, containing Atlas CKD-bicycles, arrived; partly rusted, because they had not been packed in a container.
   January 1986	The first 40 bicycles were sold (to the mechanics among others), while about 80 bicycles had been assembled by the end of January (see photo 3).
   February 1986	The mechanics got their first wages: C$ 18,000 a month plus C$ 500 per assembled bicycle; this is about three times the prevailing minimum wages. Bicycles were sold for C$ 60,000 to priorized groups, C$ 90,000 to the public, and US$ 125 to "internacionalistas" (foreigners working in Nicaragua). The cost price of an assembled bicycle was about US$ 50.
   March 1986	The enterprise was officially opened and named after a brother of one of the mechanics (who had recently been killed in a fight with the Contra's): "Leonel Diaz Artola". A second workshop was opened in Masaya.
   April 1986	The regional government assigned a project administrator for the daily management of the (state) enterprise. A technical supervisor was being trained to take over the quality control.
   May 1986	The technical supervisor checked all bicycles on his own.
   June 1986	New (better) tools arrived from the Netherlands. In Granada and Rivas workshops were opened. The technical supervisor was fired because of internal differences, but not replaced.
   July 1986	Production rose about 50%, due to ceased quality control.
   August 1986	Two mechanics were fired for committing fraud. Production rose to 200 bicycles a month (with only 9 assemblers). Maintenance and repairs were hardly done. September 1986 CICAT deployed Frits van Gelder in the project, to succeed Peter van Balen in December 1986. A questionnaire about the technical condition of sold bicycles was held.
   October 1986	The final bicycles of the first two containers were being assembled. While waiting for the next container, maintenance and repairs were being promoted.
   November 1986	A new Hero-shipment arrived, containing 300 (22") Gents' Roadstar, 250 (20") ladies' bicycles and 200 (20") boys' bicycles. The two last mentioned came in "flamboyant" colours and had 26"x1. 5" rims and tyres.
   December 1986	Frits van Gelder succeeded Peter van Balen as CICAT - representative. 200 Flying Pigeon bicycles arrived in Jinotepe for a technical check up. They had been assembled in Managua as part of 3,000 CKD-bicycles bought by MITRANS, meant for distribution over all regions. This checking resulted in totally disassembling and assembling of the bicycles.
   January 1987	A new technical supervisor was being trained. A new (and better) workshop was built in Granada.
   February 1987	The stockmanager and one of the guards were fired for committing fraud.
   March 1987	New shipment of tools arrived from the Netherlands. Container 4 and 5 were still on their way, 6 and 7 were ordered.
   April 1987	All CKD-bicycles from container 3 had been assembled.
   May 1987	Frits van Gelder went to Chinandega (Region II) to talk about the set-up of a bicycle assembly in that region (source 8).
   June 1987	Finally, container 4 arrived.
   July 1987	Paul Lazarom arrived in Nicaragua, to succeed Frits van Gelder in October (1987); he is deployed by CICAT as well.
   August 1987	Frits van Gelder and Paul Lazarom had a meeting with the Vice Minister of Transport. They agreed on the necessity of the co-ordination of (future) bicycle promoting activities. Frits van Gelder will be available for this job from October 1987.
   September 1987	CICAT decided to look for potential sponsors for Frits van Gelder as an advisor for MITRANS.

4. Major problems
   
   
   1. All arrivals of containers were delayed, due to logistic problems both in India and during transit; sometimes there were delays up to five months.
   2. 1. Sales to the public were less than 10% of the overall sales, due to:
         • lack of publicity and promotion of the existence of the sale to the public.
         • much too complicated purchase-procedures; at one stage of the project people even needed a signature of the Governor of Region IV (who is the highest official of the region, and therefore never at his office to sign such requests).
         • deliberate restraint in assigning purchase-permissions from the side of the regional government.
      2. Sales to the "internacionalistas" were less than 1%, thus hardly bringing in any - so much needed - hard currency. It is hard to understand why the regional government did not promote these sales, not being able to provide dollars themselves.
   3. 1. Discontinuity in the staff of some of the workshops, due to bad management and a large turnover of staff.
      2. The personal capabilities of the mechanics were not used efficiently. Less experienced staff had to do maintenance and repair work, which is more complicated than assembling. Assembling was done by the most experienced - thus fastest - assemblers, to maximize production.
      3. Mechanics stealing parts.
   4. Maintenance and repair work was hardly done, because:
      • lack of publicity and promotion of the existence of maintenance and repair facilities.
      • lack of interest in promoting maintenance and repairs by both the regional government and the enterprise.
      • lack of a "tradition of maintenance"; most Nicaraguans do not go to a repair shop until their bicycle (or something else) has completely broken down, and sometimes they do not go at all.
      • lack of some specific tools for repairing and some spare parts.
   5. Contacts and co-operation between the regional government and the foreign advisors were poor. More and more the regional government made their decisions without consulting either the Sofonias' project co-ordinator or the assigned engineers.
   6. 1. Most of the trained mechanics varying in age from 15 to 30 learnt fast, though hardly any of them had done a technical job before. Their major problems were:
         • handling some bicycles specific tools.
         • aligning the frame and fork; they were often misaligned, because of their several months' stay in (too) small boxes (often prestressed).
         • lacing and truing the wheels; truing-stands were of inferior quality, like many other (delivered) tools.
      2. When (quality) control was loosened, the quality of assembling dropped. Apparently their sense of responsibility was not sufficient to be able to abolish quality control without adverse effects.
      3. The payment appeared to be a constant source of disagreement. Fixed wages curb production figures, but may improve quality. On the other hand, being on piecework stimulates production figures, but may jeopardize the quality of assembly.
5. Technical evaluation

   Below you will find a summary of the technical condition of the bicycle parts before or during the assembling.

   rusty:	seat lug, bottom bracket shell, fork (blades), fork ends, rims, (bracket) bearing cups, chain, carrier, bolts and nuts (in general). The Atlas manufacturer had sent the CXD-bicycles in wooden boxes, which were packed anything but seaproof. Therefore seawater had affected about 10% of the boxes.
   damaged:	frame tubing, (head) bearing cups, rims, tubes, carrier, mudguards, (hub) dust caps, thread (in general).
   misaligned:	frame, fork, saddle-frame, rims. Due to the small dimensions of the boxes and low production quality of the manufacturers.
   general complaints:	missing parts, especially nuts, bolts, washers and ball bearings; low quality of the materials, especially spoke nipples, bolts and nuts; low quality of the paint; spare parts came as a (fixed) percentage of all parts, while specific ordering would be much more adequate; certain spare parts were lacking, therefore complete sets had to be cannibalized.

   To check the quality of the bicycles when being used, I checked about 60 bicycles that had been in operation for at least two months (77% had been used five months or more); 80% of the interviewed cyclists rode their bicycle 6-7 days a week; 65% travelled 1 - 10 kilometer a day; 61% travelled on mediocre and 27% on bad roads.

   The major faults the technical investigation pointed out were:

   • play in the head set, in the hubs (front and rear), in the rods of the brake system, in the crank axle.
   • buckled wheels, leaking valves, oxidation cracks in the tyres.
   • improperly adjusted brakes.
   • incorrectly adjusted chains (too tight or too loose).
   • unstable stands.
   • many of the accessories (carrier, chain case, mudguards) were loose.

   The majority of these faults were due to lack of maintenance; some however, were due to the poor quality of the parts themselves: rims, tyres, valve rubbers, saddles, spoke nipples, nuts and bolts in general, thread. But it should be clear that you can never expect high quality from a bicycle that has cost about US$ 50 (c.i.f.), which is about five times the present minimum wages in Nicaragua.

1. Motorized transport related imports in Nicaragua amount to more than half of the total export revenues. Maintaining the current motorized transport capacity - which is already far too small to satisfy the overall transport demand - would even raise that amount up to at least 75%.
2. By now, the public transport system capacity in Managua, and probably nationwide, may have dropped to only a quarter of the demand, thus indicating that the current public transport policy is actually failing, and that alternatives have to be found.
3. With urbanization at almost at 60%, and with 60% of the present cyclists riding 1 - 10 km. a day, and 90% of the cyclists using their bicycles to go to work or school, bicycle transport should be promoted as an affordable, appropriate means of transport, complementing motorized transport.
4. To make bicycle transport successful in Nicaragua some conditions will have to be fulfilled:
   • bicycle promoting activities have to be co-ordinated, in Nicaragua as well as in supporting countries. The co-ordination in Nicaragua has to be integrated in the national policy of the Ministry of Transport (MITRANS), which should include traffic planning (e.g. road safety);
   • imports of bicycles and spare parts have to be multiplied;
   • bicycle production should start with decentralized assembly workshops;
   • maintenance of bicycles has to be promoted among all cyclists;
   • bicycles should be within reach for all sectors of the Nicaraguan society.

1. A. de Haan; De stedelijke informele sector in de gemengde economie van Nicaragua; Leiden; 1987.
2. Ricardo Navarro/Urs Heierli/Victor Beck: La bicicleta y los tricicloss: St. Gallen: 1985.
3. Financiera de Pre-inverasion (FINAPRI): Fabrica de bicicletates Managua 1983.
4. J. Kolpa: Low Cost Transport in ontwikkelingslanden, mogelijkheden voor de fiets in Nicaragua: Amsterdam: 1987.
5. International Trade Centre UNCTAD/GATT: Bicycles and components; a pilot survey of opportunities for trade among developing countries: Geneva: 1985.
6. P. van Balen: Fietsen voor Nicaragua: Delft 1987.
7. R. Navarro Bicycle production in Nicaragua: St. Gallen: 1986.
8. F. van Gelder: Propuesta pare un desarrollo de talleres decentralizados, Jinotepe: 1987.
9. Banco Central: Anuarios de Comercio Exterior Managua: 1971 - 1985.