Cardboard Bicycle from Sheffield Student
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... [via Reaction!]