A $9 Cardboard Bike Set to Enter Production in Israel
(https://th3core.com/chat/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpre.cloudfront.goodinc.com%2Fposts%2Ffull_1343832403CardboardBicycles3.jpg&hash=cafce3dea676b68a22ca48f4b9c9958fe573a328)
http://www.good.is/post/cycle-on-the-recycled-a-9-cardboard-bike-set-to-enter-production-in-israel/
Nice!
"it can carry riders who weigh up to 485 pounds." - It should even be ok for us CC guys then
;D
The thing looks like a tank. I wonder if it would be possible to make the chain and sprocket out of plastic? Looks like he made at least some of the crank and pully system out of cardboard.
I have to admit, I'm more interested in a $9 cardboard bicycle than a plastic M16 lower receiver. Accessibility to affordable transportation at that scale is quite revolutionary. Like the gun though, they have to have some metal parts in there(?) At least the chain and bearings?
From the look of the pictures, the hubs, pedal spindles, brakes and tyres aren't cardboard. I'd guess the bottom bracket to (as you said DB, what about the bearings!) However, it could also be belt (or even shaft) driven, which could potentially cut down on the metal usage.
The $9 manufacturing cost is impressive. The $60+ sale cost less so. Is this cheap enough to significantly undercut the market of regular used bikes in Israel?
>regular used bikes
IMO, you are making a big marketing assumption, comparing a new $9 bike to a 'used' bike. I could actually imagine seeing these being sent places in mass, whereas I could never, for example, see the Red Cross flying in 850 used bicycles to help in relief efforts. These things would have a known shelf life and parts would be interchangeable. The poor would see it as affordable transportation and the rich would see it as disposable transportation.
Maybe I'm just too cynical. ;)
Let me explain my viewpoint:
They're looking to sell these things at $60+. I can go down the road and buy an 18-speed mountain bike from Halfords for $120. I would have thought that a bulk buy of something more basic (for example, London's Boris Bikes) would have a unit cost far closer to $60 than $120, with the advantage of time-tested materials, standard fittings and no tie-ins to a limited, specialised manufacturing base.
As a novelty feat of engineering, yes, but at the price they're looking to charge, I think that's what it'll remain. I also can't see an aid agency going for anything with a 500%+ markup, although stranger things have happened.
Time will tell though.
>I also can't see an aid agency going for anything with a 500%+ markup
Wait, if I read it right they are saying what the product costs are, as well as a suggested retail price to the end user. They didn't say what the wholesale number was... probably $30, if the retail is $60(?) Granted, if you parachute 200 bikes into some remote area, the cost per end user will go up, but that is a delivery cost, not a manufacturing cost.
Personally, I think we ought to be looking at plastic, light weight cars. Something about 1000lbs that can go about 50mph, with 45mpg, that costs about $8k.
I'd also like to know more about the drive system. As mentioned earlier it's doubtful the chain and sprocket could be cardboard as well. Plastic chain wouldn't necessarily be a cheaper alternative to metal chains depending on the polymer used. But the $9 production cost has me questioning this as well.
The thing has to have some steel parts in it, bearings at least, and probably the wheel shafts and crankshaft. I'd like to see how much of it is paper when you get down to the areas of contact with the moving parts.