Cardboard bike

A bicycle made from cardboard?  How green, how cool, wacky and well, cardboard – is it possible?  Read on…..

Picture: REUTERS/Baz Ratner

Israeli inventor Izhar Gafni rides his cardboard bicycle in Moshav Ahituv in central Israel. The bicycle, made almost entirely of cardboard, has the potential to change transportation habits from the world’s most congested cities to the poorest reaches of Africa, Gafni, an expert in designing automated mass-production lines and an amateur cycling enthusiast.

We think this is pretty cool and we know cardboard can be surprisingly strong so maybe there is a future for such bikes in a quirky kind of way.  Whether they are viable is somewhat doubtful in our view but there is scope for using it to prove a point; perhaps in the cardboard packaging industry or as design exercises for students.  We have also clocked helmets where the construction uses cardboad very effectively; this makes some sense.

This had me thinking… I remember reading about bike frames made from Bamboo and a quick internet search reveal that really do exist.  But I’ll blog about those some other time.

For now cardboard bikes; now that’s something that is, well, I’m not sure really.  On one hand it is an amazing feat to produce a usable bicycle from cardboard.  On the other hand, I cannot ignore the fact the above photograph was taken in warm dry conditions.  Here in England it is October – the weather is becoming progressively more cold and wet.  Ride that bike in the rain and it might collapse in five seconds, perhaps?

Have you ever ridden a bike made from any alternative material?  Cardboard, bamboo and so on.  Please let me know!