A cardboard bicycle? Yes thats right! It may seem a little strange but some entrepreneurs from Israel have developed a way to reuse this everyday shipping material to create a fully functional bike.
And at $20 it could be available to almost anyone!
And no, this is not an electric bike……but maybe it could be in the future!
Here is the first video that describes the business side of this project. There is a more detailed video of how the bike is made below.
Wow! That is a game changer! I would like to highlight some important points from the video.
First of all, this type of bike creates affordable transportation for many people. A bicycle is one of the most efficient forms of transportation and many people around the world use them as everyday transportation. Creating a bike that costs $20 opens the door of efficient transportation to so many people around the world.
This is a really cool way to reuse cardboard instead of sending it to a recycling facility. Cardboard is also a material that is readily available in many cities and towns. Why not reuse this by-product of shipping other products?
That leads right into this idea of creating local factories to create these bikes in towns and cities around the world. Locally made bikes would reduce the transportation costs of these bikes to the point of sale. Plus it would create new jobs in those local towns or cities!
Overall, this concept of reusing a shipping material that is readily available and creating local businesses to supply affordable transportation to local people is pretty amazing!
Here is the video of how they create this cardboard bike.
Izhar cardboard bike project from Giora Kariv on Vimeo.
Okay, so far it sounds great, but what about reality?
Will this bicycle be waterproof? Will it be strong enough to handle rough roads and crashes? How efficient will this bike be? Will it be hard to pedal?
Will the bike compost when it has too many miles on it? 🙂
And……will we be able to add an e-bike motor at some point? And will there be an economical e-bike kit to match the amazing low price of this $20 bicycle?
These are all questions that I am sure we will have answers to, but we may have to wait until there are enough of these bikes being ridden on a daily basis.
For $20, I will definitely buy one and report back to you on my experiences! It just might be a little while until I get one 🙂
P.S. Don’t forget to join the Electric Bike Report community for updates from the electric bike world, plus ebike riding and maintenance tips!
I think the videos answer your first 2 questions. He says they stuck it in a tank of water for months and it didn’t get waterlogged. You can also see a car standing on a bike, or piece of one.
Hi Evan, that is true, but I would like to see how the bike works after it has a few thousand real world miles on it.