Fascinating solution to a global issue, devised and patented by World Bicycle Relief.
This is the new Buffalo Bike S2, distributed by World Bicycle Relief (WBR). WBR’s primary goal is to help improve access to education and healthcare, although the bikes are so useful that they’re in demand for a range of other projects.
The original S1 Buffalo Bike was ostensibly similar, with the key difference in this S2 model being the introduction of two gears. These are provided by a system devised and patented by World Bicycle Relief, having been specifically designed to meet the conditions these bikes are used in.
The steel frame remains the ‘one size fits all’ design, with a dropped top tube making it easier to step over, without making it a full step-through bike.
The drivetrain is very different. Two speeds, two chains.
Each chain is a singlespeed chain, meaning they’re very strong and durable.
By back pedalling you flip the internal mechanism between engaging each of the two rear sprockets, swapping between the chains.
The smaller chainring isn’t just for going up hills. It’s also handy when carrying heavy loads, or riding through soft sand or mud.
All this effort went into designing this two speed system so that it would be a simple and easily serviced as possible. Other gearing systems have fragile parts, or lots of tiny internal components that are difficult to service without specialist facilities and tools.
The original S1 Buffalo Bike had a coaster brake, but with the introduction of the gears on the S2, they’ve switched to rim brakes. Wheels are now aluminium instead of steel.
It might look retro, but it’s been designed to have a long shelf life.
The rack is certified to carry up to 100kg, making it suitable for carrying a person plus produce, or just a lot of very heavy goods. Often, someone given a bike will end up carrying siblings to school – one bike doesn’t help just one person.
The kickstand has been designed to hold the bike stable and upright while being loaded, and then to allow a rider to easily set off.
The Buffalo Bikes are designed to balance functionality, versatility, durability, serviceability and price. It’s quite the balancing act, but get it right and the bikes have a long life, bringing many benefits to the people that ride them, and their wider communities.
Tune in to our future podcasts to hear more about their impact, and head to World Bicycle Relief to donate.
I like that a lot. Only downside I can think of is that you lose the possibility of a backpedal brake which are not the best but seem to go on forever. Brake adjustment, cables and ripping tyres always seemed the biggest problem on do everything bikes
Proprietary parts and expensive are 2 major problems with it.Â
It’s very cheap for what it is – those bikes are sold for about $100 and SRAM are making the freewheel almost as a charity side business. The WBR programme means that every village has the same bikes, every village has people trained to fix them and it’s one set of parts. Plus there’a not a lot to go wrong with them in the first place.
The bike (and/or the freewheel mechanism) won awards at Eurobike last year and has been successfully distributed ever since, there are hundreds of thousands of them out there now.
There’s been various other articles on the bikes on STW and various other media channels.
I am not sure i follow the gearing.
Does the back ledal effectively change gear. Or does the pedaling act like a retrodirect system?
We did this a while back (the thread includes a good video on the S2).
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/bike-forum/a-life-changing-bike-now-with-2-speed-buffalo-bike/
Even further back, it was in my ‘Best things from Eurobike 2024’ too 🙂
https://singletrackworld.com/2024/07/eurobike-2024-chipps-went-so-you-didnt-have-to/
Is anyone else allowed to make them other than sram, will other parts fit? Or would it have to go to a WBR shop to get it fitted? Are the parts still made in India and China with just the “assembly" in the local regions.
Yeah it’s cheap for a western market bike…Â
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Interesting that they are not using V brakes. I would have thought they were simpler and much more powerful