At the bike festa, you’ll get to take a close look at a bicycle you won’t find on any European roads. In our Innovation Gallery, the NGO World Bicycle Relief is showcasing a bike that does pretty much everything differently – and for good reason.

World Bicycle Relief is a nonprofit started in 2005 by F.K. Day, co-founder of SRAM. His vision: to get people in developing countries moving – with a reliable, rugged, low-maintenance bicycle that opens up access to education, healthcare, and local markets. In March 2026, World Bicycle Relief handed over its one-millionth Buffalo Bike! More than 600,000 of those bikes went to women and girls.

The specially developed Buffalo Bikes aren’t handed out one by one, they’re distributed through comprehensive, structured programs in countries like Kenya, Colombia, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Tanzania. The bikes are assembled in local facilities, and the NGO trains bicycle mechanics on the ground who both keep the bikes running long-term and earn an income for themselves.

Two Chains, One Principle

Buffalo Bikes are built specifically for rough roads and heavy loads. At the bike festa, you’ll get to see the latest model, the Utility S2, a remarkable model with a genuinely unique design. WBR’s engineers developed a patented dual single-speed drivetrain: two independent chains running on two separate sprockets. Shifting is done with a brief back-pedal. The result is a multi-speed system with none of the wear-prone components – no cables, no derailleur.

You can check out the Buffalo Bike Utility 2 in the dome tent of the Innovation Gallery, right in the heart of Domplatz.

Find out more about World Bicycle Relief here.