The man out to save Shanghai tricycles

Chris Trees, an avid British cyclist living in Shanghai, planned a special treat for a Chinese colleague’s wedding. He decided to decorate an old-fashioned tricycle, add seats in the back and transport the newlyweds in old-school Shanghai style.

But the groom wasn’t excited at the prospect.

“He looked shocked and embarrassed,” Chris says. “They had hired a car -- tricycles were for the poor.”

That’s when the idea hit him: Why not create a modern sanlunche, a tricycle anyone would be proud to ride in?

Chris’ vision has become a reality.

Chris and his wife, Florence, have built an updated version of the rusty trikes that cart water bottles and stacks of cardboard throughout Shanghai. The couple hopes their bamboo “Treecycle,” which debuted during the 2010 Shanghai Expo, could save the three-wheeler from extinction.

Chris Trees and his wife Florence taking the Treecycle, a modern sanlunche, out for a spin.

A love of cycling

As a child in Britain, Chris and a friend would ride to school on a tandem bike. Later, he cycled 48 kilometers a day to work. When he met his wife's parents for the first time, he biked to their home in Paris from Dover (with the help of a ferry).

“He arrived late for dinner and was covered in grease,” Florence says, laughing.

When the Trees arrived in China in 2007, Chris was drawn to Shanghai's tricycles. But the ones he saw were cumbersome and frequently fell apart.

The reason the trikes were all so old, he learned, was that for the past few years the government only allowed licenses for four outdated models. Even worse: they had recently stopped issuing new licenses altogether in an attempt to phase out the decrepit three-wheelers.

Still, Chris was impressed with the utility of the trikes, which could carry luggage, or give friends a ride.

He bought one at a factory outside Shanghai for about US$100, and decided to risk unlicensed riding. On the streets, he felt instant camaraderie with the other tri-cyclists.

“You feel like the king of the road,” he says. “Shanghai traffic knows you can’t stop, so no one cuts in front of you.”

Before the decline of the tricycle is complete, let’s introduce a fresh idea and new technology so that people can see there is a place in the future for the tricycle.— Chris Trees, Treecycle inventor

But he could see why the trikes were being phased out. They were slow, they hindered traffic and the brakes didn’t work well.

“That’s where technology needs to come in,” he says. “They need to move with the times.”

A new Shanghai tricycle model

When the financial crisis hit in 2009, Chris left his French advertising company with a severance package and dreams of creating his own company. Chris, an engineer by training, started sketching a lighter and faster tricycle. He and Florence found a Fujian supplier to build a sustainable bamboo frame.

The following January, the Treecycle was born, just in time for the 2010 World Expo.

The Treecycle can reach 16 kilometers an hour, even if loaded up. It has a light, stainless steel frame, improved disc braking, and uses a belt drive instead of a chain. Chris is working on an electric motor that could be combined with pedaling for hilly areas.

“It handles like a dream,” says Tyler Bowa, a Shanghai bike enthusiast, who has test-driven the Treecycle. “The new tricycle is amazing.” Last year, the Danish Odense Pavilion hosted the new bamboo tricycle.

Chinese visitors were eager to try it, and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark even took a ride. Thanks to the Expo publicity, the Trees started getting orders and interest. Shanghai Sideways, which runs motorcycle sidecar tours, is considering using the more environmentally-friendly trikes.

One of the Treecycle's major improvements on Shanghai's old tricycles: it has a protected storage space.

“This bike is a great mix of East -- the tricycle -- meets West -- Chris and Flo,” says Thomas Chabrières, who runs Sideways. “It’s perfect.”

The Trees are searching for a factory to mass-produce the trikes. Their target price is RMB 20,000.

An uphill climb

The Trees insist that a modern-day tricycle could alleviate the pressures of an increasingly car-hungry Chinese society. But large-scale implementation is an uphill climb in a country where modernization and success are associated with automobiles -- and in a city where trike permits are no longer issued.

Chris and Florence are hoping to lead by example, especially in a market so susceptible to Western influence. That’s exactly what happened with Chris’ colleague -- the groom-to-be -- who came to share his excitement for the trike. On the wedding day, Chris decorated a tricycle with red lanterns and pedaled the happy couple around the hotel’s fountain an auspicious eight times.

More than anything, what gives the Trees hope is the speed at which China can change. A city that could reinvent itself for the World Expo is a city that could embrace a modern tricycle -- if it wanted to.

“Before the decline of the tricycle is complete,” Chris says, “let’s introduce a fresh idea and new technology so that people can see there is a place in the future for the tricycle.”