The internet directed me to an incredible new video this morning.  An Israeli man named Izhar Gafni decided to make a cardboard bicycle.  Because of his interest in bicycles, which he describes as his hobby, Gafni was at a bike shop one day and overheard two people talking about someone who made a cardboard canoe.

If someone could make a cardboard canoe, why couldn’t he make a cardboard bicycle?

Gafni spoke with three engineers who all told him that it was impossible.  Afterwards, the words of his wife blew all of their impossibles out of the water.  Just try, she told him, there’s going to be no living with you until you at least try and see for yourself.  And so he did.  He equated using cardboard to origami, how every time you bend it you make it stronger.  With this in mind, he experimented, made prototypes, and eventually made an incredible cardboard bike.

The bike, which costs $9 and weighs 20 lbs, is called the Alfa and can support up to 485 pounds.  It took Gafni three years to create the bike, but now that it’s been done it could revolutionize the transportation world.  Imagine what would happen if this environmentally friendly, cheap, durable bike hit the market?  I think the Cambridge people I live near would just about keel over from excitement.  And it all started with a simple, yet ingenious idea.

Watch the video below to see the whole story of Gafni’s incredible new invention.