Chinese Motorcycles in Cameroon

[lilgman]

Last week I traveled to Douala Cameroon for ministry. Motorcycles are EVERYWHERE in the city, and most of them are "Chinese." Actually, some of the brands are Indian. I saw a lot of Bajaj and TVS bikes. But there were also plenty of Chinese or Chinese-sounding brands like Lifan, etc. I thought you might like a few pictures.



Motorcycles provide the most common form of transportation. I believe most of them are taxis, but plenty of people just get around on their own cycle. They are commonly ridden three up, or five up if children are involved. I only saw a few helmets the whole time I was there.



Lots of them have this "umbrella" over them to keep the sun and rain off the passengers. It is mounted to a bracket which is welded to either the gas tank or the frame just behind the head set. I can only imagine how bad the injuries are in wrecks because of this bracket!



I primarily saw two engines. I'm sure there are lots of others out there, but they are in the minority. I think I saw the most of these. I think it's of the CG variety. Please correct me if I'm wrong. There was some variety among them, especially on the side covers of the case, but cylinder and valve cover shape looked the same. I took the picture because this one is the "turbo" model--no turbo included.



The other really common one was this one. Can anyone tell me what it's a copy of? The brand is TVS from India, but I saw them (perhaps transplanted) into a variety of other bikes. This engine was noticeably quieter than the CG ones, and had a different sound that wasn't just the result of better mufflers.



That's my favorite picture! 300 kg (660 lbs) of cement headed up a mountain. He's looking at his phone and the kickstand is hanging down. It may not show up much in the picture, but this one was burning quite a bit of oil!

[lilgman]

I was fascinated by these "heavy haulers!"





I didn't get a picture of one heavily loaded, but I can promise you that they can definitely take some weight. Many of them had massive custom leaf spring packs in the back. These are the "F150 half-ton variety" but I also saw a few "F350s" with dual wheels at the back.



There's a picture of where the driveshaft connects to the engine. I didn't see inside, but it looked to me that it's a worm gear setup. I would think it would make a lot more sense to mount the engine transverse instead of having a right angle gear here and also a differential at the back, but anyway.

One guy I talked to said that these originally come with a 200cc engine, but when they are too worn out to rebuild anymore, lots of people replace them with a 150cc engine because it's 1/3 cheaper.

Some of them have an electric fan in front of the engine. Some have a radiator that I believe is water, not an oil cooler. I didn't get a close enough look at any of the water-cooled ones to see what engines they were.

[2LZ]

Awesome. I've seen pics of livestock and multiple family members but never a huge load of concrete!

[TominMO]

Cement guy is thinking about getting a three-wheeler.....

[Bruces]

Originally Posted by TominMO

Cement guy is thinking about getting a three-wheeler.....

Cement guy better not need to stop very quickly .

[TominMO]

Originally Posted by Bruces

Cement guy better not need to stop very quickly .

Nonsense. What could possibly go wrong?

[TxTaoRider]

These places must have news reports like "Two motorcycles collided today, 6 people dead and 4 more seriously injured".

[Falkon45]

My biggest thing is how so many of them have drum brakes. And those truck bikes look like TW200 copies. That shaft driven one used an ATV gearbox. I'm actually surprised the knockoff "DOT Certified" Chinese helmets aren't popular over there. They're normally about $25 American. A bit for Cameroon, but more than affordable.

[TominMO]

Originally Posted by Falkon45

My biggest thing is how so many of them have drum brakes. And those truck bikes look like TW200 copies. That shaft driven one used an ATV gearbox. I'm actually surprised the knockoff "DOT Certified" Chinese helmets aren't popular over there. They're normally about $25 American. A bit for Cameroon, but more than affordable.

Lots of people don't wear helmets if they are not legally required, including in the US. I call these people "future organ donors".

In the poorer countries where a motorcycle is the family vehicle, they are driving slowly, because fuel consumption (cost and availability) is a big thing in those places. Slow accidents have far less potential for serious injury than high-speed accidents, so helmets are less needed. $25 might be a month's income, so why spend it on a helmet for one person when three or four are on the bike?

[Falkon45]

Well, I disagree with the slower accident remark. A friend of mine went down at around 45mph. If it wasn't for her helmet, we'd have lost her. She had a concussion at lost her memory for about 20 minutes. Now, albeit, we were on a track (for mini bikes. Max speed of about 50 for all of us), that low speed crash would have taken her out.

Also, Most Florida and Illinois riders scare me when they CHOOSE not to wear a helmet.

[TominMO]

45 mph is not that slow. I was thinking about speeds of 50 km/hour (31 mph) and less, more common in third-world countries. Especially the way they overload their bikes. Cement guy was probably doing 20 mph or less.

[Falkon45]

Cement guy might have been going 30. I'm being the one with people on them were going about 40

[franque]

If you're talking in terms of km/h, then yeah, your numbers are probably right. I'm in West Africa (Dakar specifically), and assuming that's Yaoundé, I would imagine that the infrastructure is similar, that is to say, 70km/h is flat out booking it in town, without passengers. Top speed is not really discussed or approached by people, for efficiency's sake and also due to infrastructure quality/population density. You're just asking to get into an accident faster, especially with marginal brakes.

Here, there are a lot of taxis that are cars, and then lots of scooters. Did you see any KTM (not the real one)/Lifan Jakarta clones of the Honda Wave? I've got a Jakarta myself.

[culcune]

franque franque is online now

Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: Marseille, France -> Dakar, Sénégal
Posts: 1,348

So...you left Dallas?

[franque]

Yep, I was briefly there for two months this year, and a couple of places for a total of 4 months in the States this year, but otherwise I've been out of the States since August of 2019. I'm not particularly missing it , plus we had to leave because my wife is pregnant again, and if we stayed in the States it would have cost us a bunch more (especially my sanity, with nothing to do), and would have prolonged some things for work.

Happy Thanksgiving from Dakar!