Bicycles
BicyclesIsrael news photo: Flash 90

A self-described bicycle freak from a moshav near Netanya has designed and manufactured a bicycle made out of cardboard, which he estimates can be mass produced and sold for approximately $20.

Izhar Gafni said in a homemade YouTube that he thought of the idea after reading about a canoe that was made totally out of cardboard.

His bicycle tires are made from reconstituted rubber, and the entire bike is produced from cardboard and recycled materials, but no metal.

An expert in designing automated mass production lines, Gafni, aged 50, hopes his idea will relieve congestion in cities, especially those where poor people may not be able to afford bicycles made from metal.

His cardboard contraption weighs bout 20 pounds (9 kilograms), compared with 31 pounds (14 kg) for the average metal bike.

He lives on Moshav Ahituv, located northeast of Netanya and southeast of Haifa, and worked for four years from his home to compete the bike, which the video shows him riding on sidewalks and through puddles.

Gafni treated the cardboard with a recipe of organic materials to make it waterproof as well as fireproof, and then coated the bicycle with lacquer, he told Reuters.

A business partner and Gafni plan to make three model bicycles – and a cardboard wheelchair – in several months.

Looking into the far future, Gafni thinks that cardboard will be used to manufacture cars.