An amazing new design will hit the shops soon. The CARDBOARD bicycle. Izhar Gafni an Israeli inventor, has created a bike out of cardboard that is durable, waterproof and even fireproof. He has previously also designed award winning industrial machines for peeling pomegranates and even sewing shoes. He’s also a bike enthusiast who’s designed a lot of carbon fiber frames. One day, he’d heard about someone who’d built a cardboard canoe. He thought about it for a while and eventually, led him to create a cardboard bike called the Alfa.
The Alfa weighs 20lbs, yet can support riders up to 24 times its weight. It’s mostly cardboard and 100% recycled materials, -to keep the manure grown organic lentil eaters amongst you happy- yet uses a belt-driven pedal system that makes it maintenance free. Much better than the old rusty chains. Best of all, it’s a project designed to be manufactured for about £10 to £12 per unit -and just £6 for a kids version-, making it the most sustainable bike you could imagine, but one of the cheapest, or the cheapest, ever built.
Engineers told Gafni that his idea was impossible. Yet he knew that paper could be strong if treated properly. He explains, “if you fold it once, and it’s not just twice the strength, it’s three times the strength.”
The development to what you see today took three years. Two were spent just working out the cardboard complications -leading to various patents- and the last was spent converting pulped cardboard to shape into ‘normal’ looking bike.
At the moment, Gafni is working with a company to help raise the funds to finalize manufacturing processes for his adult and child bikes and then actually put them into production. And if they’re able to pull this off, and the Alfa is everything it’s promised to be, it could be a huge revolution in bicycle manufacturing and the third world -‘developing world’ for Guardian readers- in particular.
It is without a doubt a sheer design marvel. It looks better than most bicycles out there costing as much as a small hatchback. I imagine an added bonus is that should a typically moronic London cyclist swerve in front of you, or go through a red light as most do, the bonnet of your car will suffer less damage. Very important when considering these road vermin have no insurance.
That aside, the main problem I see with it, is when it arrives in London shops. The pious, self righteous, deluded cretins from the ‘green movement’ will no doubt proclaim this the cycling elixir that will save the world. Thus, it will probably sell for 30+ times the price. If not, most cycle shops will go out of business overnight -loud cheer- because uber expensive London business rents need servicing, -as well as the normal profiteering- and you’d be a complete idiot -unless you’re a sports cyclist or hate cardboad- if you didn’t buy this cheap bike as opposed to an expensive heavy made-in-china metal model.
