Cheap and Eco-friendly Cardboard Bike Design on Blog24

Cheap and Eco-friendly Cardboard Bike Design

Posted by Chris
On June 17, 2008
Categories: Design, Dugg, Featured

A student at Sheffield University has designed the ultimate in environmentally friendly transport. 21 year old Phil Bridge developed a bicycle made from recycled cardboard during his 3 Year Degree at Sheffield.

Phil, from Stockport, is a keen cyclist and a member of Cheshire based Will’s Wheels Cycling Club. The idea behind the cardboard bike was to have a cheap and recyclable form of transport that everyone could afford.

“You can get a whole bike out of one sheet of cardboard, including the frame and the wheels. The sheets are about £3 if you buy them in bulk. So to sell, I’ve priced it as £15 for the whole bike, including additional components.

“The lightweight quality of the cardboard, combined with its low cost, means it is possible to create a bargain-bike that is also less susceptible to thieves. At the moment low-cost bikes are usually very heavy, which can also put people off.”

With an estimated cost of £15 ($29 €19) per bike, if it were mass produced, the cardboard bicycle could become a winner for people looking for cheap eco-friendly transport.

The cardboard used in Phil’s design is usually used for advertising hoardings and low-cost partitioning in the building trade and is manufactured to be hardwearing and weatherproof.

Obviously a cardboard bicycle is not going to last as long as a regular steel or aluminum tubular frame as Phil clarified;

“It wasn’t designed to be a performance bike so no, it doesn’t go better or faster than a normal tubular framed bike. But it is suitable for everyday use – just cycling quite slowly in the street not for racing!”

Phil’s bike is currently on display at the Creative Spark exhibition along with other students‘ work. You will have to be quick though as it ends this Thursday (19 June) at Hallam University Building on Paternoster Row, Sheffield.