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This is how we roll, the bike with a cardboard frame

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We’ve had bikes that have been made of wood and bamboo so why not cardboard. Yes you heard correctly, cardboard.

Hungarian Balázs Váci has developed a child’s bicycle that in part uses rolls of cardboard in the build of the bike. When we talk about cardboard rolls, this is reinforced cardboard and not the cardboard rolls used in toilet rolls or wrapping paper!!

Bike frame

The cardboard rolls act as the frame of the bike but they are attached to key elements of the bike such as the headtube or the seatstays that are all made from aluminium. Aluminium rings at the end of the cardboard rolls ensure they attach to the fastening elements of the aluminium parts of the bike.

Self assembly

The bike itself, which Balázs calls the U5, comes in pieces and is assembled by a potential owner.

The main advantage of the cardboard roll frame elements of the U5 is that the size and the shape of the bike can be changed accordingly as the child grows or can even be converted to adult size. All that is needed is a different sized cardboard roll size as the picture below shows. The U5 also gives the child or adult the opportunity to decorate the cardboard rolls as they would like. The weight of the bike can be between 8kg and 9kg.

Waterproof

We’ll take his word that the cardboard used on the bike is waterproof. At the moment the U5 has been shown as a working concept as the picture below shows, but Balázs hopes interest about the bike will allow him to take the project on further.

Balázs takes the U5 out for a leisurely roll

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See also

Bringing DIY to the bike world: the London Bike Kitchen

Flexing the possibilities of bike design

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