Twenty kilos in three panniers: Cinécyclo

Dijon, 2014

Cinécyclo is a nonprofit association based in Dijon, founded in 2014 by Vincent Hanrion; the association organised the Senegal expedition rather than forming after it, as is sometimes reported ^2,3. That tour ran from 15 November 2015 to 1 June 2016, covering 3,000 kilometres with approximately 100 screenings for more than 10,000 spectators ^3,4. The kit fits on one touring bicycle — "environ 20 kg de matériel répartis dans trois sacoches" (about 20 kg of equipment distributed over three panniers) — generator included, light enough for one person to tour with alone ¹.

The rack that becomes the stand

The signature mechanical element is a rotating luggage rack — a "porte-bagage rotatif" — on the rear axle, which carries equipment by day and pivots down at night to raise and steady the bicycle as its own generator stand ⁸. Cinécyclo dates the rack to its first Senegal expedition — "dès sa première aventure au Sénégal" — and presents it as an in-house development; no patent was located in any register, and the "patented rack" claim in some secondary accounts is an embellishment ⁸. The only patent located in this corpus belongs to Gaumont, whose 1921 "Lumicycle" pedal generator for school film projection is the field's earliest documented antecedent ⁴.

Roller, generator, CinécycloBox

Generation is via a roller — a "galet" — pressed against the tyre, driving what the association describes as "une génératrice électrique (moteur ou alternateur)," an electric generator, motor or alternator ⁸. Some internal details — the roller's material, its step-up ratio, the cadence band it is tuned for — are not publicly disclosed.

The electronic core is the CinécycloBox: "Elle constitue le cœur électronique de notre système de cycloprojection, afin de réguler et stocker l'énergie produite par le pédaleur… Depuis 2016, nos kits de projections sont équipés de composants électroniques spécifiques (des super-condensateurs) pour réduire l'usage des batteries au maximum." ("It constitutes the electronic heart of our cyclo-projection system, regulating and storing the energy produced by the pedaller… Since 2016, our projection kits have been equipped with specific electronic components — supercapacitors — to reduce battery use to a minimum.") ⁸ The supercapacitors reduce but do not eliminate battery use. A small lithium reserve remains, given in seconds: "Les batteries au lithium permettent de stocker un peu de jus, environ 40 secondes" ("the lithium batteries store a little juice, about 40 seconds"), per Les Échos in 2025 ⁷, and 55 seconds in a 2025 sector guide from the French rural-cinema network ADRC ⁵. Either figure bridges the moment one rider dismounts and the next takes the seat — nothing like the hours KLAK's battery buys, and shorter than Rock the Bike's ultracapacitor bridge.

The power budget

The projectionist stated in 2022 that the system "produit assez d'électricité pour faire fonctionner le projecteur qui consomme entre 60 et 80 watts" ("produces enough electricity to run the projector, which consumes between 60 and 80 watts") ⁶, and the ADRC guide rates the complete kit at about 60 W — against "entre 1 300 et 10 000 watts" for a conventional mains cinema projector — for audiences of up to 120 people ⁵. Both figures are operator-stated or guide-reported rather than metered; they supersede unsourced figures of 30–45 W that circulated earlier. The Senegal-era kit was designed for audiences of 250 to 300; the current kit, with one rider sustaining roughly 60 watts, is rated for 120 ⁹.

France and Senegal

The association has retrenched to France — tours ran from May to August 2025, with screenings in the Vexin in May 2026 — while the volunteers who stayed in Senegal after the expedition "sont autonomes et mènent des actions ponctuelles de manière indépendante de l'association" (are autonomous and carry out occasional actions independently of the association) ¹⁰. Cinécyclo Sénégal is an offshoot rather than a branch: the same idea, continuing on its own terms.