Startacus - Unusual Inventions - The Cardboard Bicycle

by Startacus Admin

This story has been doing the rounds (pardon the pun) for the last couple of months and Startacus thought it was time to highlight this wonderful invention. Faced with a “this can’t be done” back story, this invention is close to Startacus’ heart, as we believe that you do not necessarily have to be an expert in a subject to have a great idea!

Israeli Inventor Izhar Gafni started with a simple question of whether it was possible to make an affordable and workable bike from cardboard!

A lover of bicycles, Izhar had come up with the idea while living over in the US and investigated the possibilities of building a prototype, after finding out that no one else had had the idea previously! After being told by engineers that it was an impossible idea, one might think that Izhar would have given up on his dream idea, however in an interview with Newsgeek’s writer Roy Latke, Gafni explained why he didn’t give up:

“One day, while I was watching a documentary describing the assembling process of a jumbo jet, one of the engineers mentioned that when everybody tells him that something ‘is impossible,’ he knows he is on the right track. This stayed with me, and made me experiment with different materials and types of cardboard in order to provide my prototype with the reliability and strength it needed.”

Now look where he is at - The prototype he has now fully developed is cost effective to be produced at around $9 - $12, waterproof and eco-friendly as well. It doesn’t look too bad at that too! If you get the chance watch this short video below for a bit of inspiration and to understand more about Izhar Gafni’s journey.

So when you are next told that your ‘big idea’ is a big waste of space, perhaps think of Izhar Gafni, the Cardboard Bicycle inventor - you may be riding one one of his cardboard designs in the future too.

• #invention
• #
• #cardboard bicycle
• #inspiration

Published on: 23rd August 2012