This is a great story about a man who had a passion, a simple idea and with all great success story perseverance. Izhar Gafni is a designer who became an inventor because he loved to create and turn materials that had a specific use and turn it into something new.
Bicycles are his hobby, his passion, his "soul" so it was fitting that a trip to the bicycle store for some spare parts was the catalyst to what would be his greatest invention. After overhearing a story of a guy who built a canoe out of card board his restless mind went to overdrive and asked the question "why can't you make a bicycle out of cardboard as well?"
He soon realised that there was no precedents of creating a bike out of cardboard and even when he sought advice form three respected engineers he was told it was impossible. Undeterred Izhar set of to work anyway with the support for his wife, he built several prototypes each time finding new methods of working with the material and after several attempts he succeeded in creating a bike that was strong enough to hold a person of up to 300 pounds its can even withstand water and humidity. He used origami folding principals to strength the frame and create the wheels, seat and handlebar and the results? well it's nothing short of genius. check out the vid below.
Izhar cardboard bike project from Giora Kariv on Vimeo.
