Don't recycle that cardboard; make a bike out of it

A lot of people were talking to me on the weekend about Izhar Gafni and his cardboard bicycle.

I posted a comment about it last week, but if you missed that, take the time to check out the No Camels website and the six-minute video on this (mostly) cardboard bicycle.

Belt-driven, reinforced cardboard frame and wheels (with rubber applied to the outside of the rims) and designed to be produced at a cost of between $9 and $12 a unit, it is accessible transportation for anyone.

Although, you can pick up a steel frame bike from almost any suburban street on garbage day and refurb it. It'll cost you more than $10, but it, too, will be cheap dependable transport.

Still, having a cardboard bike is a talking point.

Comments

[Peter Parker]

Was there anything about how this would fare in the rain? I imagine we get a little more in KW than Izhar gets in Tel Aviv.

More importantly, though - given the number of perfectly good metal bikes being thrown into the dump every day, I'm not sure cheaper cardboard bikes is the best solution we can come up with for the planet! =)

[clasher]

This is complete hogwash for a number of reasons. That bicycle has way more than 9$ in parts on it. A belt alone has gotta be 40 or 50, likely more. Wal-mart has steel bikes for under 200$ and I doubt the cost of the materials is a big part of it.

The mass production of metal bicycles is an extremely efficient enterprise that benefits greatly from economies of scale. A steel frame is also extremely resilient as the vast number of vintage rides still in service can testify.

The frame looks like it's coated with something, likely epoxy and paint which isn't really environmentally friendly and makes the cardboard pretty much un-recyclable and un-compostable unless special coatings are used.

He's also way out to lunch with his product cost, sure you can sell it for 9$ if you make it yourself for free but to have a factory building these things would cost a lot of money... in fact the same amount of money one would spend paint a steel frame and shipping it around the world is present in this product too.

I really wonder how long it would take to wear off the paint get the "rims" to burn a bit... I mean, who wants a bike that's only good for lolly-gagging around bike paths?

I get that it's quaint to make stuff out of cardboard it really is a neat material but there's no good reason to reinvent the wheel again here and create a disposable bicycle and then have the gall to greenwash it as cheap transportation... sheesh.

[Steve Fitzpatrick]

Sounds like a great idea to me. Why pay $1000 for a decent bike when you can pay $20 to achieve mobility? It would be a huge benefit to developing countries.I even read of one being converted to an e-bike.
http://youtu.be/o_j5dPVTYAs

[Peter Parker]

I agree with your question Steve, but since there are plenty of working metal bikes that can be bought for $20, I don't see the advantage of cardboard.