People used to laugh at inventor Izhar Gafni's idea, but now they wonder where they can buy it.
Why so cheap !
A bicycle made almost entirely of cardboard has the potential to change transportation habits from the world's most congested cities to the poorest reaches of Africa.
Izhar Gafni, 50, is an expert in designing automated mass-production lines.
He is an amateur cycling enthusiast who for years toyed with an idea of making a bicycle from cardboard.
He told Reuters during a recent demonstration that after much trial and error, his latest prototype has now proven itself and mass production will begin in a few months.
"I was always fascinated by applying unconventional technologies to materials and I did this on several occasions.
But this was the culmination of a few things that came together.
I worked for four years to cancel out the corrugated cardboard's weak structural points," Gafni said.
"Making a cardboard box is easy and it can be very strong and durable, but to make a bicycle was extremely difficult and I had to find the right way to fold the cardboard in several different directions.
It took a year and a half, with lots of testing and failure until I got it right," he said.
Members of the Colla 'Vella de Valls' start a construction of a human tower during the 24th Tarragona Castells Comptetion on October 7, 2012 in Tarragona, Spain.
The 'Castellers' who build the human towers with precise techniques compete in groups, known as 'colles',
at local festivals with aim to build the highest and most complex human tower.
The Catalan tradition is believed to have originated from human towers ...
