For many cubans, pedal power is the most reliable and accessible form of transportation. used to carry everything from children to bathtubs, from spare parts to piles of naranjas, guayabas, y mangos. Arising more out of necessity than choice, this dependence on two wheels has occurred largely as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union and its subsidies for oil, nearly two decades ago.
Local ingenuity and mechanical experi-mentation have produced many made-in-Cuba solutions to broken bicycles, with hybrid parts and modifications becoming common: seats mended with patches of denim, brake levers tied on with string, homemade wooden child seats affixed to the top tube. Other additions and changes provide for easier hauling of goods: three wheeled bicycles, bikes with carts in front, carts behind, and extended back racks.
Everyone, it seems, is on bikes. Men and women doubling their girlfriends, friends, children, or mothers; people dressed in suits and office wear, people selling fruit, or carrying loads of cake, or glass bottles. A couple rides by, side by side on their own bikes, the man’s arm resting comfortably on the woman’s shoulders. A woman passes with her three-year-old child perched comfortably between her legs. One-speeds and Chinese “Flying Pigeon” bikes are the most common varieties, but you sometimes see mountain bikes, cruisers, or road bikes. Two people pass in the back of a bici-taxi, carrying a full-size TV on their laps; a woman in immaculate white nurse’s garb, complete with little cap pinned tightly to hair, sits upright and pedals a Flying Pigeon. Heavy loads are made more manageable on large tricycles designed for hauling, with extremely long chains and a low gear ratio. Bici-taxis are customized and personalized with hand-painted bubble shells, seat upholstery, bells, and horns. What can’t be done by bicycle here? Apparently, nothing. In Cuba, bikes rule.
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