Cinécyclo

Cinécyclo is a nonprofit cultural, educational and environmental association founded in Dijon in 2014 by Vincent Hanrion ¹. Its expedition through Senegal, from 15 November 2015 to 1 June 2016, covered 3,000 km in around 100 screenings for more than 10,000 spectators ⁸. One rider pedals at a time: a roller pressed against the tyre drives a generator that the association describes only as a motor or alternator; the roller's material, step-up ratio and pedalling cadence are not publicly disclosed ². The CinécycloBox regulates and stores the output, with supercapacitors since 2016 and a small lithium reserve ². Screenings are run by a rotating cast of "Cinécycloistes" and the equipment is not sold, rented or lent ². Two 2025 accounts, a Les Échos feature and an ADRC rural-cinema guide, describe the current kit ^5,3. The association now tours only in France; volunteers from the Senegal expedition carry out occasional actions independently in Senegal ⁹.

Specifications

What do these labels mean?

Field	Value	Confidence	Sources
Kit weight	~20 kg, in three panniers	Documented	¹
Riders	1 bicycle, one rider at a time (audience rotation)	Documented	¹
Stand mechanism	Rotating rear-axle luggage rack, pivots down to raise and stabilise the bikeDeveloped in-house on the first Senegal expedition; a generic version now fits the whole Cinécyclo fleet of bikes.	Documented	²
Patent	No patent evidence foundCinécyclo presents the rack as an in-house development, not a patented product, and no patent register search located one.	Documented	²
Generator type	not disclosedThe association describes the generator only as 'une génératrice électrique (moteur ou alternateur)' — a motor or alternator. Roller material, step-up ratio and pedalling cadence are not published.	Not disclosed	²
Buffer since 2016	Supercapacitors, plus a small lithium reserve	Documented	²
Buffer ride-through, per Les Échos (2025)	~40 seconds	Operator-stated	⁵
Buffer ride-through, per ADRC guide (2025)	~55 secondsBoth figures describe the same current kit; this profile reports both rather than picking one.	Operator-stated	³
Kit power draw	60 W total (sector guide figure)Supersedes lower, unsourced figures (30–45 W) found in earlier secondary reporting.	Operator-stated	³
Projector draw	60–80 W (projectionist's own statement, 2022)	Operator-stated	⁴
Audience ceiling, current kit	up to 120 peopleThe current French kit's ceiling reflects one rider sustaining roughly a 60 W load.	Operator-stated	³
Audience ceiling, 2018-era kit	250–300 peopleHanrion described a bespoke projection kit for audiences of 250–300 in a 2018 interview; the current kit is rated lower.	Operator-stated	⁶

In their own words

"environ 20 kg de matériel répartis dans trois sacoches" — about 20 kg of equipment distributed over three panniers ⁷

"Le kit utilisé est peu gourmand en énergie puisqu'il ne consomme que 60 watts, alors qu'un projecteur de cinéma classique consomme entre 1 300 et 10 000 watts." — The kit used is not power-hungry: it consumes only 60 watts, whereas a conventional cinema projector consumes between 1,300 and 10,000 watts. ³

Line diagram of Cinécyclo's power chain from roller to supercapacitor box to a projector drawing sixty to eighty watts — Rider → roller → generator → CinécycloBox (supercapacitors + ~40–55 s lithium) → projector 60–80 W^1,5,8,2,3,4 Image: BicycleCinema.org, drawn from the research corpus

Children watching a Cinécyclo pedal-powered open-air screening — Photo: Cinécyclo (cinecyclo.com) — via cinecyclo.com

Corrections and confidence notes

Some secondary accounts place the association's founding after the Senegal expedition; it was created in 2014, the year before ¹. Descriptions of the rotating rack as patented circulate elsewhere; no patent was found in any register checked, and Cinécyclo presents the rack as an in-house development ².