Cardboard bicycle can change the world, says Israeli inventor

[NickB79]

http://news.yahoo.com/cardboard-bicycle-change-world-says-israeli-inventor-090732689.html

Gafni owns several top-of-the-range bicycles which he said are worth thousands of dollars each, but when his own creation reaches mass production, it should cost no more than about $20 to buy. The cost of materials used are estimated at $9 per unit.

snip

"In six months we will have completed planning the first production lines for an urban bike which will be assisted by an electric motor, a youth bike which will be a 2/3 size model for children in Africa, a balance bike for youngsters learning to ride, and a wheelchair that a non-profit organization wants to build with our technology for Africa," he said.

snip

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.

Very cool.

[Warpy]

1. I love to see things engineered downward

and made more accessible for poorer people. Transportation is a basic need across the globe and this looks like it would be a good solution.

I'd also love to get solid tires for my own bicycle. Yes, they'd be heavy and the ride less cushy, but I ride on paved roads (when my back will permit) and I don't need to ride on a pressurized air bubble.

[TheMadMonk]

3. Clearly not spray seal roads or you'd be less blase.

A few inches of recycled (crushed) concrete, a spray of tar and a layer of 1/2 inch screened metal bedded in by traffic is what passes for a paved road around here.

Even with that air bubble, the basket holding the battery (lightweight lithium) and controller on my e-bike has been reduced to a non-cohesive collection of wire (now held in place by string amd zip ties) by the local roads.

Cost of materials = $9 per unit? What is the cost of the processes needed to turn $9 worth of raw materials into a finished product? How do they compare with the cost of turning a roughly equivalent $9 worth of billet steel and synthetics into a finished bicycle?

A huge potential dis-enginuity here is confabulating ex-factory prices with final retail prices. K-Mart sells adult push bikes for <$100. Figure in profits and shipping costs and it's a given that they are paying roughly the same $20 or so potential (once all the wrinkles are ironed out) manufacturing price claimed for these cardboard masterpieces. No way in hell can $9 worth or raw materials be sold for $20 as a finished to market product.

Just how easily can those complex, composite material, industrial processes be relocated to a third world environment? How would this compare with stuffing shipping containers with discarded 1st world deadly treadlies and shipping them to places like Africa and leaving it up to the locals to canibalise 3-4 discarded bikes to make one personal people mover, a donkey/goat cart and a hoop or two for kids to chase with sticks?


Strikes me that this is just one more way for bankers/profiteers to extract immediate value from a low margin market rather than allowing that value to profit and expand the market from which it is prematurely removed.

[msongs]

2. very nice. will car companies buy them out and kill this thing? hmmm nt

[tinrobot]

4. Good idea, but the bike itself appears to be poorly designed

That picture of him on the bike looks way off in terms of ergonomics. The frame is too small, and he's way too far forward. Looks like an uncomfortable ride.

He might want to get am experienced frame builder to tweak the design/geometry before he mass produces the thing.