Economist.com:
THE first bicycles were made of wood. After that, manufacturers used steel tubes. These days, for high-end bikes where weight is at a premium, they turn to aluminum alloys or even to carbon fibre. But Izhar Gafni, an amateur cyclist who owns a number of such high-end bikes, wonders whether the original inventors had a point. He proposes to go back to using wood—or, rather, a derivative of wood, namely cardboard.
Mr Gafni, who is based in Ahituv, Israel, spent years trying to work out how to make a cardboard bicycle able to support the weight of a human being. The trick is twofold. First, he folds the cardboard—commercial-grade material, made from recycled paper—to increase its strength. (He worked out the exact pattern of folding for each of the machine’s components using the principles of origami.) Then, once it is folded, he treats the result with a proprietary resin that holds it in shape and stiffens it, before cutting it into the form of the component required. A second application of resin renders the component waterproof, and a lick of lacquer makes it look good. The result, Mr Gafni claims, is stronger than carbon fibre.
The bike’s frame, wheels, handlebars and saddle are all made of cardboard in this way, and then fitted together. The tires—again harking back to the early days of cycling—are composed of solid rubber, recycled from old car tires. That makes the ride a little harder than if they were pneumatic, but means they cannot be punctured.
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THE first bicycles were made of wood. After that, manufacturers used steel tubes. These days, for high-end bikes where weight is at a premium, they turn to aluminum alloys or even to carbon fibre. But Izhar Gafni, an amateur cyclist who owns a number of such high-end bikes, wonders whether the original inventors had a point. He proposes to go back to using wood—or, rather, a derivative of wood, namely cardboard.
Mr Gafni, who is based in Ahituv, Israel, spent years trying to work out how to make a cardboard bicycle able to support the weight of a human being. The trick is twofold. First, he folds the cardboard—commercial-grade material, made from recycled paper—to increase its strength. (He worked out the exact pattern of folding for each of the machine’s components using the principles of origami.) Then, once it is folded, he treats the result with a proprietary resin that holds it in shape and stiffens it, before cutting it into the form of the component required. A second application of resin renders the component waterproof, and a lick of lacquer makes it look good. The result, Mr Gafni claims, is stronger than carbon fibre.
The bike’s frame, wheels, handlebars and saddle are all made of cardboard in this way, and then fitted together. The tires—again harking back to the early days of cycling—are composed of solid rubber, recycled from old car tires. That makes the ride a little harder than if they were pneumatic, but means they cannot be punctured.
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