the history of burricleta

“Burricleta brings people closer to nature in a peaceful, informative and reflective way”

Burricleta was born at Lluçanès, through the initiative of the entrepreneurs Regina Casas and Joan Salas who wanted to develop an innovative model of ecotourism which would create a sustainable quality tourist activity applicable to natural and rural environments.  In today’s society which is crowded into large and medium built-up areas, contact with nature is an increasingly urgent necessity.

The present pace of life, our disjunction from its natural cycles and the loss of sycronisation with our environment means that it’s necessary to create activities with bring people closer to the natural environment in a peaceful, informative and reflective way.  The success of ecotourisme is a reflection of this unfulfilled necessity.

“Burricleta is the beginning of passionate love between a catalan donkey and a beautiful bicycle.”

When we decided to start the business, we made the decision that our activity would be a reflection of our own personal values.

That’s why we created a business that allows us to share something, that for us is a privilege, with society: living in the rural world in a way that respects the natural and social environment. We’ve studied the intrinsic values of Corporate Social Responsibilty (CSR) such as accessability, such as a responsible atitiude to the environment or the priority of buying our products from local suppliers and manufacturers (who we also ask to apply the CSR) so that wealth is reinvested into the local economy.  The quality of the products and the service having priority over the price.  In the tourist sector, we understand that the only viable future is ecological tourism or ecotourism.  Our objective is to consolidate a quality model of ecotourism, reinforcing the values relative to this activity such as sustainability, conservation and appreciation of the natural and cultural environment around us, as well as promoting the local towns by strengthening the common synergies.  Within ecotourism, we are applying an innovative concept which is specialising in the hiring of electric bikes, reformulating cycling as an activity for everybody where the emphasis is not on being fit but rather on knowing how to ride a bike.  By giving everyone the same fitness level, provoding an activity that can be shared by the whole family, group, clubs, couples...  Burricleta is democratising the use of the bicycle for all types of people.

“Burricleta is therapeutic: it lifts your self esteem and brings the family together.”

This objective can be attained thanks to the development of the Burricleta, the rural, electric bike.  The exclusive developement of new software by Burricleta for interactive GPS guiding (up until now not on the market)  enables us to discover the natural/rural surroundings without having to mark out the paths.  It also  offers an wonderful platform to include illustrated information in different languages all of which enhances our tours.  This information is based around cultural and natural values, whether intangible (history, legends, landscapes, values...) or tangible (architecture, geology, botany, fauna...).  The Burricleta GPS acts like the museum “audioguides” making the Burricleta experience complete.

However, these first years has shown a fact:  Although many people know about the electric bike, only a few have ever actually tried it out.  This fact, together with the fact that Burricleta is a great way to get to know electric bikes means that we can further in what we have to offer to selling electric bikes.  Having our own technical service and the credibility that comes from hiring out our fleet, we present ourselves as “the electric bike specialists with a guarantee service”

Commercial agreements with the national manufacturer, Ecobike, establishes us as the Ecobike Official Sales Service and Technical Assistance, as well as allowing us to develop and evolve an electric bike model that has been thought out strictly for hiring.

In order to increase the competition in what we have on offer and being aware of the potential that there is to reproduce our model in other geographic areas, we are growing by granting licences and creating the Burricleta Network.  This puts together all our effort into a communal benefit and allows us to become, in a short time, a benchmark in the hiring, selling and maintenence of eletric bikes