Phil Bridge, a product design student at Sheffield Hallam university, has unveiled a prototype cardboard bicycle which he believes could retail for as little as £15.
“A typical round town bike can cost several hundred pounds, and that’s a large investment for people who aren’t sure whether they will use it. The idea of cardboard is to completely devalue the bike.
“The cardboard for the frame is the material used in industrial packaging. It’s very strong and it has a honeycomb core. It’s mainly used in partition walling and packaging.
“The prototype does work but it is still quite limited and there are a few problems”.
Where I live in East London bicycle ownership is quite a complex system. It’s less of an investment and more a kind of variable-length lease between the time the bike is bought, stolen and bought back again from the thieves! Hopefully a £15 bike would be less at risk of theft. Just as long as it doesn’t rain…
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This entry was posted by Tamlyn Rhodes on Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 4:15 pm and is tagged with Design and is posted in the category Industry News, Tech News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Sounds like where I live too. And how do you live in East London yet work in Sheffield? :/
how do you live in East London yet work in Sheffield?
I use my cardboard bicycle! No, I mainly work from home but go up north one day a week. When I first started 18 months ago I thought it would be really hard work but actually it's not that bad. The way I see it I get all my commuting out of the way in one go.
Nice idea - and one long journey is much nicer than lots of short ones I think, as it gives you time to actually be productive (or to relax, for that matter). Hmm. Perhaps it's something I should consider...
Hmm, I can't get logged in... I wonder if that's something on this PC in London or somethings broken -- is anyone else able to log in and remain logged in on the blogs?
You do get some crazy ideas these days - hasn't he seen the weather in Sheffield over the last week?
Hmm, this PC in London as I'm now logged in!
i like the bike but think i'll just relax and sit down instead... http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/16/chair-made-from-disc.html
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