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Guests: Leah Missbach Day; Bill McGann
The holidays are literally around the corner and today, I wanted to offer up one of my favorite year-end opportunities for giving.
Leah Missbach Day is one of the founders of WBR, and World Bicycle Relief is about to turn 20.
In the years since its inception, it has grown from aiding 20,351 people in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Tsunami to 850,000 bicycles on the ground in 7 African countries and in Colombia, South America.
Calling it “50 kilograms of love,” Leah Missbach Day joins me to talk about World Bicycle Relief and the bicycle that is changing lives all over the African continent and beyond.
With some new components innovations as well as an independent study that 
showed incredible results, WBR lives up to its motto of Empowering individuals to access education, healthcare and economic opportunities through life-changing bicycles.
These bicycles have helped girls to go to school, health workers to deliver life saving aid, and farmers to get their goods to market.
The Buffalo bike provides a sturdy, reliable machine that offers not only transportation but safety to the thousands of people who ride them.
The S2 Drivetrain
The Impact Study
In the second half of the show, I’m joined by Bill McGann.
Bill started out as a bicycle retailer in a 750 square foot shop in California back 
in 1974 with a $3,000 bank loan and a lot of chutzpah.
In his new book, Why Your Bike Is Made in Asia: My career in bicycles as I watched two continents squander an industry, takes us from early bicycle history through the 10-speed craze and on into the industry’s move to Asia as a result of some wrong-thinking on the part of American and European manufacturers.
It’s an interesting look at the bike industry from a very different perspective.
In the many conversations I’ve had with bicycle historians over the years, no one has mentioned the single tube bicycle patents OR how Asian-made bicycles came to overtake the European and potential American markets back in the 70’s and 80’s.
Bill McGann lived that transition, and he tells us all about it in his new book, Why Your Bike Is Made In Asia, My Career in Bicycles as I watched two continents squander an industry.
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