Bicycle Parts, Nampula Market, Mozambique

Wandering the local market in Nampula, Mozambique, I came across these two gentlemen, Luis and Juliao. Now I don’t really speak Portuguese, but I can count to one hundred, so I embarked on the somewhat tortured process of trying to establish the prices of the bike parts they were selling.

In most cases this would be next to impossible, since my tourist status would have branded me as Mr. Moneybags, and any discussion of prices would have begun in the stratosphere–or its bicycle equivalent–the velosphere? But somehow I was able to communicate to Juliao that I would not be purchasing anything, and so as I jotted in my little notebook, I think he gave me a pretty fair version of local pricing. Which is mind-blowingly cheap.

• Hub: $1.50
• Two brake pads $0.30
• Cassette – 7 gears $3.00
• Cassette – 1 gear $1.50
• Big pump $3.00
• Small pump $1.50
• Rim $3.00

Thanks Juliao! It was a pleasure to meet you, and I’m glad I came to your market, even though some loser tried to pickpocket me about two minutes after we spoke.

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(This is part of a series of Bikejuju posts about bicycles in Mozambique. Find all the Mozambique posts here. Or more broadly, all the Bikejuju African bike posts are here.)