Extremely packed Sanlunche, photo gallery by Alain Delorme

If you think, Camerickshaw is really huge, you don't know the art of packing tricycles.
Just have a look at the incredible Totems by Alain Delorme

and check out his own beautiful website:
www.alaindelorme.com . Its stunning !

First public presentation at UNITED PINHOLESon july 2nd 2011 at ArtRoom86, Shanghai

Now Camerickshaw makes its first public approach. The 3-wheel-pinhole-camera participates in the UNITED PINHOLES show of Alfonso de Castro / Barcelona and Matthias Hagemann /Shanghai
on the 2nd of July 2011 between 12 A.M. and 5 P.M. at ArtRoom86, Shanghai.
The weather forecast is better than it has been generally during June, so I hope to suffer some heat instead of rain and storm.

camerickshaw assembly - a short video

how to unpack and set up the CAMERICKSHAW - a short presentation

Making of the camera a chinese speaking adventure

One step is to design a pinhole camera on paper, the other is to find the materials, craftsmen and workshops to produce this more-than-2-meter tall camera in an only chinese speeking environment.

Metal structure

















For the structure, I found a small welder's shop below a giant highway at Xujing which could do the works in high quality stainless steel. Due to the weather conditions and the mainly poor steel quality, I decided to invert some extra money in that material and to avoid endless corrosion problems of current local steel.
The friendly welder did understand all my special wishes out of my drawings and after some weired chinese conversation after only sev eral weeks of chinese lessons. I went severel times to check price, in-between steps and the final assembly.


















The tent
The tent cover was another issue. There was no fabric available which was similar to my spanish sample, but I did find at Caoan Fabric Market some waterproof black-out fabric with a silver and a black face.
The fabric is relatively thin, so I asked for a double layer cover to avoid future problems.






I presented the complicated velcro system via a Tetra-Brik scale model - my real structure is far to big- and finally the cover fits perfectly to the structure. Mrs. Huang made some final stiches on the velcro.











My local carpinter cut the wooden bottom, top and pinhole frame panels, so the tent soon can be finished with some paint and screws.

My new FeiHong Sanlunche -some technical details

I bought my trike of Shanghai Famous Brand "Fei Hong" (Flying Rainbow) 飛虹名牌.
Now I want to decribe some special features of the vehicle:














The trike is 2.50 m long and 1.00 m wide.
The front wheel is 26 x 1 3/4", the back wheels are 26 x 2 1/2".
The interior loading surface is 1.10 m (l) x 0,75 m (w)
Maybe it is better not to know the weight, honestly said: it is heavy. There are no fenders and no front brake , I'll try to change this detail some day. No loading surface is provided, but my local carpinter is resolving that problem with solid plywood.




















A very special detail is the brake: some handle at the frame pulls via two metal bars at a curved metal sheet. This sheet stops by contact to a flywheel at the back axle the back wheels. The back axle is easy to change to a motorized version by some screws. Corrosion protection is not foreseen...
The elegant frame shape allows to hopp on the trike in loaded position.
Of course, forget about any gear shift.












The hardened solid steel lock "Football" should protect it the next years from robbery. As long as the camera isn't installed, my children like to have short trip on the back trough the neighborhood.

The adventure begins: buying my cargo tricycle Sanlunche at Shanghai

It seems so easy to get a sanlunche when every gardener or recycling collector in the city has an old and rusty one, but finally there aren't so many shops selling a good selection of them.
All Shanghai citizen want to drive e-bikes, e-trikes, and the classical musclepowered trikes are out of fashion.

Last month, after some unsuccessful internet investigation (I don't want to by a container full of them at alibaba) , I found occassionally a good shop about 25 km from my house, and after the spring festival break I convinced two friends to take me a sunny tuesday morning to the shop at Hutai Branch Road 1588, not so far from Metro Line 7 ChangZhong Road Station in the north of Shanghai.




So I start the negotiations at the shop,
looking for a strong black model.



The first model is the smallest of the black sanlunche, by the price of 700 RMB.
I know that quality isn't western standard, but this cheepest model is too poor. Light tubes, corrosion, bad wheels. And the cargo part is too small. I prefer some stronger model.

The second one looks better: 1,10 m Cargo back, less corrosion, better wheels and ball bearings. The frame also looks stronger, but I am still missing a hand brake.
850 RMB is okay for the vehicle. The next size would be 1100 RMB, with welded spokes, and too long for my project, so I check the mid-size model.

In some short moment the shop crew installs a seat and I go for a trial ride.
I could not believe how different it is to ride a cargo trike: some smooth turn to on side, and all the dozens of kilos from the back want to go to the new direction. Soon I miss the hand brakes right at the handlebars, it's a long way down to the frame based brake.
The black paint has not totally dried, so my hand get black from usinig the brake.





My decision is made: I want to own this FeiHong Famous Brand trike !!!
I further choose a strong lock (Football Brand !), hardly recommended by the shop's Laoban. But I don't buy the optional electric motor kit for 1400 RMB, because I want to have a few slow rides on it, not the everyday heavy load transports.




The early morning payment makes the chief as happy as me, but I think the price is more than fair for the heavy iron vehicle.








The shop's namecard (if anybody needs the telephone or exact address)
and official my receipt for the payment:

Yes, now I am an owner of a sanlunche !






Thanks to Klaus and Tania, for getting me to Hutai Branch Road, helping at translations and taking all these photos of the Cargo Trike Shopping Day !
And some info how to get to the shop google maps:


Hu Tai Zhi Lu 1380号-1638号 auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen

Welcome to Camerickshaw

This is the story about my Shanghai Pinhole Project based on a classical chinese vehicle. The idea is to build a huge pinhole camera on the back of a sanlunche (三轮车) cargo trike or rickshaw.

As pinhole photography is a slow method of capturing images, the way to move in the XXL metropolis should be slow as well.
This camera will allow me, the photographer, to stay inside the pinhole camera during the exposure of large scale photos which I want to take in different districts of the City of Shanghai. Hopefully, local people will be attracted by the strange vehicle and might like to participate in the photographies.
I expect many positive experiences, maybe some unforeseen suffering and a wonderful and unique time at my actual hometown 上海.
As it is a combination of a RICKSHAW and a PINHOLE CAMERA, the project is called
CAMERICKSHAW.