Izhar cardboard bike project. This $9 Cardboard Bike Can Support Riders Up To 485lbs. Izhar Gafni has designed award winning industrial machines for peeling pomegranates and sewing shoes. He’s also a bike enthusiast who’s designed a lot of carbon fiber rigs. But one day, he’d heard about someone who’d built a cardboard canoe. The idea drilled its way into his consciousness, and ultimately, led him to create a cardboard bike called the Alfa. The Alfa weighs 20lbs, yet supports riders up to 24 times its weight. It’s mostly cardboard and 100% recycled materials, yet uses a belt-driven pedal system that makes it maintenance free.
But as the above video documents, the design process was arduous. The development to what you see today took three years. At the moment, Gafni is working with a company to raise the funds to finalize manufacturing processes for his adult and child bikes and then actually put them into production. Then again, the best way to score yourself a recycled bike is just to go to a pawn shop and buy one used. [Hat tip: Design Taxi] $20 Cardboard Bike Headed To Market. A 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, its Israeli inventor says. 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. “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. “I’m repeatedly surprised at just how strong this material is, it is amazing.
“This is a real game changer. Source: Reuters. A cardboard bike that could change the world. Izhar Gafni's cardboard bike design holds vast potential for third-world transportation. respontour via Flickr Enlarge photo» If you visit trekbikes.com and click on Road Bikes, then Race Performance and then Madone 7 Series, you will see the Madone 7.9, a bike with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $11,549.99.
Yes, a five-figure bicycle. Now, for the real shocker. An early report on inc.com in July said the bike would retail for $60 to $90. “Because you get a lot of government grants,” Elmish explained. While you won’t see one of Gafni’s bikes in the Tour de France any time soon, they do hold vast potential for urban biking and third-world transportation as well as the field of sustainable design. “We are just at the beginning,” Gafni said, “and from here, my vision is to see cardboard replacing metals. One senses this is not just marketing bluster. The initial production run will include three bicycle models as well as a wheelchair.
Contact David Ward at dward@deseretnews.com. $9 Cardboard Bike from Israel Going to Market. Could it be a world-changer? A cheap solution to help African kids get to schools and clinics? Israel’s Izhar Gafni (who we interviewed here) had an outlandish idea to create a durable cardboard bike from scratch with raw materials sum totalling about $9. Add in some labor costs and you can get a pretty cheap ride, one worth buying in a world where bike theft is rampant. News reports are circling around the world that Gafni’s cardboard bike (see photos here) is headed to market. “When we started, a year and a half or two years ago, people laughed at us, but now we are getting at least a dozen emails every day asking where they can buy such a bicycle, so this really makes me hopeful that we will succeed,” he said. Hus business partner Nimrod Elmish, Gafni’s business partner says that by using cardboard and other recycled materials there can be a huge change in production norms.
Estimated to last 10 years, the cardboard bike will also weigh two-thirds the weight of a regular bike. A cardboard bike. Cardboard bike is a 'game changer’ in Africa.