Cardboard bicycle?!?!?
 

Yup.
http://i884.photobucket.com/albums/a...BOARDBIKE1.jpg
Read it here:
http://news.yahoo.com/cardboard-bicy...090732689.html

I thought it was a bad idea the first time I saw it and nothing has changed now.

If Fred Flintstone owned a bike, it would look like that. I would have one as a novelty item.

If you think picking a saddle for your current bike was difficult, what would this be like?

$20? Obviously the guy knows nothing about running a business. Labor costs alone would blow that budget out of the water. Then you have liability, machinery, building overhead, shipping, etc, etc, etc. No way it could be brought to retail under $200 and that's if it materials were free.

Naw, Fred's bike is much sturdier.

http://i49.tinypic.com/2eg87qh.png

Yabba, Dabba, Dooooo!

When Fred Flintstone's bike was mentioned, I thought that it had stone wheels and a wooden frame but I couldn't remember exactly. I suppose my memory for the distant past still works. I wish it would work for the recent past too. Now just what did I mean to get at the store today?

Nah! They'll sell it like Ikea furniture! You get to do ALL the assembly yourself! Just think, the box could be part of the assembly materials! How efficient! :D

You're right about cost reckoning though. Even when they get all the initial costs right, they don't think about how massive production will change those costs. As demand for something goes up, it's price will follow, so things like biofuel will have their costs soar stratospherically as demand far exceeds available supply.

... and those rectangularly shaped handlebars look REALLY uncomfortable...

Hang on here... check the date on that. That is a poseur Fred. The real Fred was done and over in '66.

yes, but like many of us, he refused to grow old. This was his mid-life crisis phase.

I like the 'phantom rear brake'... jeez.

"the cardboard bikes would be made on largely automated production lines and would be supplemented by a workforce comprising pensioners and the disabled."

I knew there was a reason this was posted in this forum, must be some kind of help wanted advertisement to boot :roflmao2:

Maybe he plans on using prison labor like many companies do now(very cheap labor). Believe it or not, some call centers you may call for help or to order products have a prisoner taking down your order/information.

Seems to me that the third world has made do for a number of decades with around WWII technology bicycles and already has the infrastructure to keep them maintained and functioning. I don't think you are going to push them off old steel frames and balloon tires.*

oh don't get me started on this... what a racket.

And the reporters who filed this press release rewrite know very little about industry, business, manufacturing or bicycles.

As is typical of the media about most everything

The first world has garage sales/flea markets to pick up functioning bikes for $10.

I now see where the idea for belt drive came from.

Now if we could just get them to where they are needed in the third world for an additional $10 each.