Israeli inventor Izhar Gafni has designed the $20--retail!--bicycle. Why so cheap? He's built the weatherproof, durable, light bike out of cardboard.
From
Reuters:
Izhar Gafni, 50, is an expert in designing
automated mass-production lines. He is an amateur cycling enthusiast who
for years toyed with an idea of making a bicycle from cardboard.
He
told Reuters during a recent demonstration that after much trial and
error, his latest prototype has now proven itself and mass production
will begin in a few months.
"I was
always fascinated by applying unconventional technologies to materials
and I did this on several occasions. But this was the culmination of a
few things that came together. I worked for four years to cancel out the
corrugated cardboard's weak structural points," Gafni said.
"Making
a cardboard box is easy and it can be very strong and durable, but to
make a bicycle was extremely difficult and I had to find the right way
to fold the cardboard in several different directions. It took a year
and a half, with lots of testing and failure until I got it right," he
said.
Izhar has released a video of his bike in construction and in action:
More from the Reuters article:
The bicycles are not only very cheap to make, they are very light and do not need to be adjusted or repaired, the solid tires that are made of reconstituted rubber from old car tires will never get a puncture, Elmish said.
"These bikes need no maintenance and no adjustment, a car timing belt is used instead of a chain, and the tires do not need inflating and can last for 10 years," he said.
A full-size cardboard bicycle will weigh around 9 kg (about 20 lbs) compared to an average metal bicycle, which weight around 14 kg.
The urban bicycle, similar to London's "Boris bikes" and others worldwide, will have a mounting for a personal electric motor. Commuters would buy one and use it for their journey and then take it home or to work where it could be recharged.
He said that as bicycles would be so cheap, it hardly mattered how long they lasted.
"So you buy one, use it for a year and then you can buy another one, and if it breaks, you can take it back to the factory and recycle it," he said.
