The fact that attempting a world travel on a bicycle is as confounding as doing it on one that’s, well, made of bamboo; but it is not a hurdle for this man. Concern and adventure are the inspirations behind this venture, reports our Correspondent ‘Alice Yhoshu
KOHIMA, MAY 6
Taking the love of adventure, cycling, concern for environment and a passion for healthy lifestyle in one stride, cyclist Sievituo Solo will embark on his fourth cycling expedition and traverse across at least 19 European countries and the United States. What makes this expedition exceptional is that Sievituo will be pedalling a self-made bamboo structured bicycle and will attempt to etch his name in the Limca Book of Records for ‘Most Distance Travelled on a Self-made Bamboo Bike.’
The cyclist will be leaving India for France on May 25 to begin the first leg of his ambitious expedition from Paris. He will attempt to cover at least 9, 000 kms within a span of six months.
The bamboo used to build his cycle for the tour is said to have been treated at the Nagaland Bamboo Resource Centre in Dimapur. A six-member team including Sievituo himself, built the bamboo frame for the bike while Kohima-based architect Richard Belho, a mentor of the cyclist, engineered the structure.
“It took us almost three weeks to build the bike,” the young cyclist told Eastern Mirror. “We have decided to name it (the bike) ‘Solo-your Indigenous bike’ because of its uniqueness. While bicycle frames made of bamboo are not a new concept, every bamboo bike is different from the other, thus, unique.” He said ‘Solo’ was the finished product from two previous trial builds he tried with friends from Manipur and his Project 72 team.
When asked if the bamboo bike would last throughout his planned route, he was optimistic: “Yes! Because our team built it with our own hands!”
“We have been working hard on conservation of environment and we have very strong and good species of bamboo in Nagaland… We feel this (bike) is an ideal message of being eco-friendly,” Sievituo said, on a more serious note. He will be undertaking the impending cycling expedition under the slogan ‘innovative, eco-friendly and healthy lifestyle’.
His earlier cycling expeditions, carried out with his childhood friend Ruokuo Kire, included ‘Discover Nagaland on a Bicycle’ in 2011 during which they pedalled their way across the 11 districts of the state covering a distance of about 1,400 kms in 31 days. They gradually put together their love for adventure, cycling and a shared concern for the environment and rode beyond the mountains of Nagaland in 2013, in their second expedition underthe theme ‘re-cycling for greener environment,’ to campaign for a healthy environment. The duo cycled a distance of 4,000 kms in 39 days from Kohima to New Delhi via Bhutan, into the Indo-Bangladesh territories and Nepal. In their third expedition ‘cycling for sustainable world: wheels of change’ in 2014, the young cyclists covered 7, 000 kms across seven South-East Asian countries.
On Friday, Sievituo explained that Ruokuo would not be able to join him in the fourth expedition owing to other priorities. He admitted to being anxious about doing the trip alone this time and said he was more careful in planning. “Its going to be more challenging, but at the same time, it will give me time to rediscover myself as I continue to be a spokesperson of a better environment,” he says.
Sievituo and Ruokuo’s experiences from their previous cross-country cycling expeditions had led to the formation of ReCycling Initiative, a non-profit organization with the slogan ‘Green is Change’, which aims to promote the importance of recycling and to raise awareness on natural environment and global warming while creating user-friendly navigation for healthy living and linkages. Since then, the ReCycling Initiative has produced ‘Project 72 Hrs’, an initiative inspired young people of Kohima to commit 72 hours of their time to community service in 2015.
Led by Sievituo himself, team Project 72 Hrs became the talk of the town as well as on the popular social networking site Facebook, as they progressed from picking up trash and litter randomly strewn on the roadsides of the town to clearing clotted drainages. They also delivered motivational talks on clean environment in schools and colleges.
The team completed its 72 hours of community service. However, they have decided to continue voluntary civic service by collaborating with the town’s municipal organization.
Their most recent activities include the Kohima mural art project through: it is a project through which the team envisions to make best use of empty spaces and plain walls in the town; share positive and inspirational messages with young artists working their magic with paint alongside Kohima’s roadsides.
The Project 72 Hrs team members, who helped in creating the bamboo bike’s structure for Sievituo’s expedition, had this to say: “Bicycles are common, but building one with bamboo was a first for us. It was challenging and at times we felt like giving up but our interest in what we were doing made the challenge welcome and we are here today… We are proud of ourselves, and we feel great that one of us is going to attempt at making a record with our creation.”
The young cyclist is grateful for his family’s support and trust in his dreams. He acknowledged the backing and encouragement to his ambitious attempt: from the Minister of Forest, Environment & Climate Change Dr. Neikesalie Kire, and bureaucrats Temjen Toy and Menukhol John.
The expedition is being supported by the government of Nagaland under the patronage of the Chief Minister TR Zeliang, while the components of the bamboo bicycle is said to be sponsored by Dream Corp.
