Cardboard bicycle for under $20

[pmbug]

I thought this was pretty cool:

...
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.
...
Once the shape has been formed and cut, the cardboard is treated with a secret concoction made of organic materials to give it its waterproof and fireproof qualities. In the final stage, it is coated with lacquer paint for appearance.
...
Once ready for production, the bicycle will include no metal parts, even the brake mechanism and the wheel and pedal bearings will be made of recycled substances, although Gafni said he could not yet reveal those details due to pending patent issues.
...
Gafni's workshop, a ramshackle garden shed, is typically the sort of place where legendary inventions are born. It is crammed with tools and bicycle parts and cardboard is strewn everywhere.

One of his first models was a push bike he made as a toy for his young daughter which she is still using months later.

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.
...
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.
...
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.
...

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

 

[bushi]

...I've heard on the radio this morning, and then presto- reported on PMBug

Well, that's how heuristic CPI works, in a word - they will replace today's high-end carbon fiber/titanium roadbike's price, with that cardboard one, call it a "substitution bias" - and hey, what inflation???? :rotflmbo:

Same as they did for houses - back in a day, built of bricks & mortar, nowadays, build from all kinds of "boards". Yet these shit quality 'board boxes, still cost few times more 'dollas' than these old brick & mortar ones, back in their days

Gosh, how we improve our technology! We cheapen it and cut everything to the bones, yet it is still just good enough, to NOT fall apart within a warranty period!

IT is quite intriguing, how he mentions there will be "no metal parts whatsoever" - what about bearings, of all things?