From the December 1, 2012 issue of The Economist:
"Re-cycling"
"Transport: A cardboard bicycle sounds as plausible as a chocolate teapot. But that has not stopped one inventor from building one"
"The first bicycles were made of wood. Cyle manufacturers then switched to steel tubes. These days, for high-end bikes where weight is at a premium, they use aluminum alloys or even carbon fibre. But Izhar Gafni, an amateur cyclist who owns a number of such fancy 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 bicylce able to support the weight of a human being. The trick is two-fold. First, he folds the cardboard - commercial-grade material, made from recycled paper-to increase its strength. (he worked out the exact pattern of folding using the principle of origami.) Then, once it is folded, he treats the result with a proprietary resin that holds it in shape and stiffens it, beore cutting it into the form of the component required. A second application of resin rendenrs the component waterproof, and a lick of lacquer makes it look good. THE RESULT IS STRONGER THAN CARBON FIBRE (CAPS are mine :yikes: ).
The bike's frame, wheels, handlebars, and saddle are all made of cardboard in this way, and then fiited together. The tyres - again harking back to the early days of cycling - are composed of solid rubber, which is recycled from old car tyres. That makes the ride a little harder than if the tyres were pneumatic, but it means they cannot be punctured.
The chain, based on the timing belt of a car, is also made from car-tyre rubber. The pedals are are plastic recycled from bottles. and the brakes are recycled too, though Mr. Gafni is not ready to disclose the details. The finished product weighs 9kg, a bit less than an ordinary bike, and can carry a rider weighing 220kg.
Mr. Gafni 's target market is the poorer countries of the world . Because manufacturing the cardboard bike will, he reckons, cost $9-12 a unit, his design is far more affordable than a steel-framed bike. But people in rich countries may be interested too. In Tel Aviv, the commercial capital of Mr. Gafni's native land, 2,000 stolen bikes were recently put on display by police for their owners to claim. If bicyles cost less than the locks that chained them to lamposts, thieves might not think it worthwhile to steal them."
So, I'm waiting for someone to start firing these eco-friendly bad boys off one of those new-fangled 3-D printers and huck 'em off some boulders at SME or SMB. A bit flexy but what the hell, you're saving the planet. 