Bicycle frames (车架) are usually made out of materials like carbon fiber (纤维). But in Ghana, a businessman has developed another way to make bicycle frames from a natural product – bamboo (竹子).
Bamboo does not get much respect in Ghana. Farmers think of bamboo as an unwanted plant that needs clearing from their land. Workers use it to support buildings. But Kwabena Danso thinks bamboo is much more valuable. He operates a business called Booomers International which makes bicycle frames out of bamboo and sells them to other countries.
Kwabena Danso states bamboo can help Ghana in many ways. He says he wants to, in his words, "get the local people to know that there's a great advantage of bamboo." Actually, Booomers International provides good jobs to young men like Abdul Razak. He serves as a supervisor (监工) for the company. Mr. Razak says that without this job, he would still be living at home with his parents. He adds that the job helps him a lot.
Kwabena Danso has sold only a few of his bamboo bicycle frames within Ghana. Walter Kudzodzi is one of his customers. He bought a bicycle earlier this year. Mr. Kudzodzi says his bike gets a lot of attention when he rides around his neighborhood.
"For example, one Saturday, I rode about five kilometers around my neighborhood and everywhere I went, people were just looking at me. And from time to time you hear, 'Hey, it's made out of bamboo. Hey, that's the bamboo bicycle.' And every time I stop to take a break, people come close to me and say, 'Wow, we heard about this, but this is the first time we've seen it. Does it work?' I say, 'Yeah, try it.'"
Mr. Danso's business has received lots of orders for his frames. He says Booomers is ready for expansion(扩展). He hopes to have more of his bamboo frames not just in foreign countries, but also on the roads of Ghana.