The South African Government commissioned a study to find out about the need for bikes, and found that people walked an average of 4-hours per day.
The study found that children were walking 10 miles (16 km) to school, and many of the students who made it were falling asleep in the class, due to tiredness having walked that far, not helped by poor nutrition.
Head loading is common in Africa, which causes spine damage.
A lack of bicycle tools makes looking after bikes a problem. Re~Cycle supplies tools to help with this.
The need for spare parts is very important. When we ship a 40-foot container, there is room underneath and in between the bikes for parts. These are used to refurbish the bikes we send, and also the bikes already out there. There are many bikes without pedals, just the spindle. There are tyres held together with inner tubes (see below), which means the brakes won't work.
There are some downloadable info sheets about these issues, here: