Salon.com > Paper Bicycles http://www.salon.com Thu, 20 Jun 2013 04:25:54 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Paper bicycles! http://www.salon.com/2012/09/18/paper_bicycles/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/18/paper_bicycles/#comments Tue, 18 Sep 2012 22:17:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13015758 Hyperallergic When Israeli designer Izhar Gafni heard that someone built a usable, watertight canoe out of cardboard, one thought began to obsess him: What about a cardboard bike? The result is the world’s first paper bicycle, an uber-efficient, beautifully designed, and eminently sustainable tool that could change transportation the world over.

Gafni’s final product, a striking cycle painted in lacquered, waterproof white with a bright red seat, costs just $9 to $12 in materials ($5 for a kids version), weighs 20 pounds, and supports a total weight of up to 485 pounds. They key to the bike’s design is that paper’s strength increases exponentially as it’s folded — Gafni compares it to origami, noting, “if you fold it once, it’s almost three times the strength.”

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