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  1. #26
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Treading Water
    Posts
    6,683
    How many hours do you think go into collecting and processing the recycled cardboard?
    Then, how many hours do you think go into hand fabricating each piece of the bike?
    Then, how much money goes into actual bike parts like a headset, bottom bracket and hubs?
    My guess is that these go for >$500 bucks and are only ever used as marketing gimmicks.

    Think about it; you could probably build that cardboard canoe much more easily since it doesn't have high friction moving parts. But just finding the right cardboard would be a pain and take a ton of time. Then you'd probably spend a couple/few hundred hours on fabrication, use a cubic yard of glue and still have to schellac the finished product.

    Both products are really cool concepts though.

  2. #27
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Posts
    12,609
    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Conway View Post
    Uhh, the huge number of people in the developing world who have $20 but not $200?
    So they are going to have to buy a new $20 bike every year rather than a $200 bike that will last for years. Meanwhile, the old bike goes into a landfill, because I doubt that the cardboard is recyclable after a hefty waterproof coating is painted on.

    I just find anything disposable to be a step in the wrong direction. If someone can prove that these bikes last for many years under normal every day use, then I'm wrong.

  3. #28
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Electric Larry Land
    Posts
    5,318
    Quote Originally Posted by shredgnar View Post
    So they are going to have to buy a new $20 bike every year rather than a $200 bike that will last for years. Meanwhile, the old bike goes into a landfill, because I doubt that the cardboard is recyclable after a hefty waterproof coating is painted on.

    I just find anything disposable to be a step in the wrong direction. If someone can prove that these bikes last for many years under normal every day use, then I'm wrong.
    Good point on the re-cyclability of the cardboard. I'm sure it would not be recyclable after that resin or varnish is applied. I'm also not sure how long the cardboard around the axle areas would last after constant use.

    If I heard him correctly, the actual cardboard would be stamped out in a stamping machine and then assembled by villagers in a factory in various 3rd world places. Being that they would be assembled in the 3rd world, that would cut production costs, as long as the villagers see good benefit from the work and not just paid mere cents and left.

    Evidently, he left a frame in a submerged in a water tank for 5 months and it was still waterproof. Although in the vids, they're calling it water-resistant, not waterproof.

    Amsterdam would be a good place to test them....soooooo many bikes and bikers there. Test them for a year or two there, give them to people to beat on and then review them.

    I personally think he's farther away from production than I originally thought. But I still wish him all the best in his endeavor, and hope it does come to pass.

    --
    "The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity - it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it; a jealous, possesive love that grabs at what it can." by Yann Martel from Life of Pi



    Posted by DJSapp:
    "Squirrels are rats with good PR."

  4. #29
    Hugh Conway Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by shredgnar View Post
    So they are going to have to buy a new $20 bike every year rather than a $200 bike that will last for years.
    If like billions of people who don't fucking have $200 yes, that's what happens. In another couple years they hope to have the money to buy a moped - not another bicycle. Because, again, they don't have much money and this is basic transportation - not TGR dickbag lifestyle differentiation. The lack of cpaital why they sell shampoo in single use packages in the 3rd world - people don't have the cash to invest in a big bottle. It's not hard to understand.

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