We get lots of emails about people buying a Mundo, but Johan’s letter was so much fun to read, we had to share it with everyone.
Hi,
The good. Got up this morning with the feeling that lugging a cart behind my bike is no longer going to work. Need something better. Went to my local bike shop and found nothing useful around there but for the suggestion to “go check the internet”. The better. Ze Yuba. You bet. Wonder if Yuba is short for something like Uhaula. The best. Well, your site is good, dealer locator & everything. So lucky me, you have a dealer not 20 minutes from here (by bus, that is since I don’t own a car, thus the search for a cargo bike). I pay a visit to the dealer, have a good look at the live animal and order it there & then (you’ll like that part) then rush back to the bus-stop (if I catch the return ride within 2 hours, its free). Now the story gets funny. Rushing buswards past a parking lot I notice a camper just catching fire, must have been the heat. I quickly get a fire extinguisher from some driver and kill the fire before it really takes hold. Basically, save the day. In short, if not for your bikes, I would not have been around just when it mattered and the whole lot might have gone up in flames.
So why no more green Mundos? I’m in the process of starting my own business. Already have an excellent name for it “Johan, the Green Handyman”. And then it turns out my future mighty workhorse can have any color I want…but green. Sure you should not have called it the Model-T? Anyhow, before you get all worried now, I ordered the color orange. I’ll build a toolcarriertrunkiekindathing next. In green. Carrot-leaf-green. Problem solved. Not my fault if afterwards the thing looks a bit like a carrot – Carrot-leaf-green. You have been warned.
A few words about myself. I’m a High-Functioning Autistic (aka Aspergers). It’s not contagious and it does not hurt, thank you. It is still very much misunderstood. Combines intelligence with socially clumsy and tends towards telling loonngg stories loonnngg after everyone falls asleep (you might have noticed that). I’m also a certified energy consultant, meaning in this country I can consult people on making homes more energy-efficient, then 40% of my fee is tax-refunded. I live in a 1930′s garage that i’m rebuilding into a zero-energy house/workshop (‘used up’ a bike/cart on that). My kind of autism does not like to drive cars because I’m bad with surprises & split-second stuff. I walk, I bike, I bus & train, all but drive a car. Ah, before I forget, I’m an engineer, a carpenter, a plumber and an electrician too, with all the paperwork to prove it.
So yes, got the brains, the skills, the green motivation, even the paperwork to start my own business “Johan, the Green Handyman” but lugging a cart behind my bike really was not going to work.
Meaning your Yuba is going to make a Mundo of a difference.
Johan
Brussels
Belgium
PS. I like the way you built this bike for Africa. It’s really the kind of stuff they need. Altho on 2nd thought the World in general & the Western world in specific need it even more – If we all want to live rather than die from our own pollution that is.
multiple stages.
The Bicycle Works