A Cardboard Bicycle?

To be fair, it’s really thick cardboard.

When I first read about a $30 cardboard bicycle, well, I kinda laughed a little. Of course, when I rode a bike, it was a mountain bike, and I pushed that sucker to it’s limits. This bicycle is obviously not intended to romp in the Arizona sun, where it might just catch fire (kidding). Sure, other bloggers may worry about the bike getting wet in the rain, but we Arizonans simply do not have that problem (often).

It wasn’t until I saw just how thick that cardboard is that I started to take this thing seriously as a temporary means of transportation. Also, I’m quite impressed with the craftsmanship on display here. A quick look at the area around the front sprocket will reveal impressive cardboard-to-metal connections:

How does he do that? Seriously- this bike is designed to carry a 175 pound rider… of course the cardboard might as well be fiberboard for as thick as it is. Which reminds me of ye olde wooden bicycle.

The cardboard bicycle is intended for people who aren’t sure whether or not they really want to buy a bicycle- it is intended as an inexpensive temporary bike, to be later replaced with a real bicycle (or maybe not).

Thanks to Gadget Heat for cooking up a an awesome article about a woody bike, and a huffin and puffin hello goes to BBC who wrote about it first.