Page 2 of 2

Re: New cardboard bike

Unread postPosted: Wed 17 Oct 2012, 15:30:37
by Revi
I went with a friend to one of those sales the cops put on of old bikes. I think he got them for less than a buck each. Cheap bikes are everywhere right now, but they will be scarce and useful again soon.

Re: New cardboard bike

Unread postPosted: Mon 22 Oct 2012, 23:45:27
by Narz
Pretty cool, for $20 I'd buy one.

Re: New cardboard bike

Unread postPosted: Tue 23 Oct 2012, 00:22:05
by kublikhan
It's got solid rubber tires. I rode a bike once with solid rubber tires. Never again. They are TERRIBLE!! The pneumatic tire is 10x better than solid rubber tires. You could not pay me to ride this bike.

There is a reason that the inflatable tire has dominated since it's invention by Dunlop. Materials are getting better but they still don't provide the combination of strength and cushioning of the inflated tire.
...
the pneumatic tire solves LOTs of bike problems
cushioning
traction
light weight
comfort
cheapness

now think about solid tires over rocks and roots
uugghghhhh!!
...
I haven't ridden them but people I know and trust have and they all say that they are terrible. They give a rough ride and they get poorer traction than a pneumatic tire.
...
Solid tires are awful. They weigh a ton and ride like they were made of cast iron. There is a very good reason why 99 .99% of bike tires have air inside
...
You cant beat pneumatic tires.
Are solid rubber bike tires ok?

Re: New cardboard bike

Unread postPosted: Tue 23 Oct 2012, 03:51:41
by SeaGypsy
Agreed! Why not pneumatic? Solid rubber tyres are rubbish.

(I just read Kub's link. I used the tuffy stuff, the lining between tyre and tube, living in a place where the locals loved to smash glass. Went from 2 flats a week to none in a year. Friends reckon the slime works well too, I chose the other option on weight, less than half.)

Re: New cardboard bike

Unread postPosted: Tue 23 Oct 2012, 11:41:12
by Ayoob
Thankfully I have a steel framed bicycle to ride, but I'm sure my children will appreciate the lightweight nature of these bikes. I have found steel framed bicycles to be so enjoyable to ride that I'm not looking forward to any other materials. One of my best friends gave me a steel framed road bike years ago that belonged to his father in law. It was an absolute joy to ride. Whoever stole it from me... I hope you got a couple of good rides out of it. It was thousands of $ new.

My more modern bike was about $700, but I very much enjoy taking it out for a spin. More and more I use it for trips to the store. If I'm going to Costco I take my gas guzzling SUV, but it's just not practical to haul eight cases of soy milk home on a bicycle when Costco is four miles away.

Today I'll be loading up on frozen berries, plain yogurt, and almond milk to make smoothies. That's a car trip. The funny thing is that I wind up driving so much less than I used to. I doubt I've driven a thousand miles in the last year. What a change from the 25K+ miles I racked up every single year when I lived in LA.

Re: New cardboard bike

Unread postPosted: Wed 24 Oct 2012, 01:50:01
by Keith_McClary
SeaGypsy wrote:Rattan dressed steel.
Can you imagine attaching a pedal to a crank made of this stuff?
ImageI bet it is a cardboard dressed steel crank. :lol:

Re: New cardboard bike

Unread postPosted: Sun 26 Feb 2017, 20:06:26
by Subjectivist
I find it dissapointing little or no progress n five years.


Meet the inventor of the world’s first cardboard bike

Nobody believed it would work, but an Israeli cycling enthusiast thought otherwise.

Izhar Gafni is crazy about bikes – he makes them, fixes them and rides them. But three engineer friends thought the chain had really slipped from the gears when Gafni suggested crafting a cheap and environmentally friendly bicycle out of cardboard.

He had been inspired while working in California on a pomegranate project, and one day saw a car outside a bicycle shop sporting a wood-frame boat with a cardboard cover.

Gafni started testing and building, refusing to accept the engineers’ opinion that the project would never work. Israelis, he reminded them, “did impossible things with agriculture, with military, with high-tech and science. I thought, if they can do it, I can do it.”

Gafni has built six prototypes of 100 percent recyclable materials, 95% percent of it strong cardboard. He sees it as a possible urban environmental project or perhaps as a mode of transportation for schoolchildren in Africa. He is hoping the worldwide publicity for his project will win his cardboard bikes corporate or governmental sponsors.

https://www.israel21c.org/meet-the-inve ... oard-bike/

Re: New cardboard bike

Unread postPosted: Sun 26 Feb 2017, 20:51:15
by sparky
.
This sound like a feel-good story about being green

China made bicycles for the same price ,tens of millions of them
all over Asia one could see guy moving mountain of stuff on them
they were rugged enough to carry more than two hundred pounds over bad ground

the Vietcong used them on the Ho chi min trail , one bike could carry more weigh than an elephant

Africa was flooded by the "swallow" and other brands , much to the satisfaction of their customers
they were ugly but indestructible and when you spend some of your scare cash , that's a prime concern

http://feigebike.en.made-in-china.com/p ... -050-.html

Re: New cardboard bike

Unread postPosted: Mon 19 Jun 2017, 00:08:39
by Peaku22
I think the cardboard bike looks interesting. However, people would still choose China-made bicycles since it comes at the same price or maybe even cheaper.

Re: New cardboard bike

Unread postPosted: Mon 19 Jun 2017, 13:46:38
by AdamB
Peaku22 wrote:I think the cardboard bike looks interesting. However, people would still choose China-made bicycles since it comes at the same price or maybe even cheaper.


Seahorse posted that as a joke I think. He was deep into peak oil zealotry when he did the OP, he was one of the gang that vanished when it turned out that advocating the idea was just a quick way to identify the economically challenged.