The better mousetrap.
It is something inventors, designers and people with nothing better to
do dream about in their labs, research facility or their parents’ dark basement. We have written in our Random Thoughts section
of the SBT website about the cardboard bike and later about the carbon fiber
bike that is sans pedals and creates its own electricity. Now another inventor, Matt Smith has come up
with the plastic bike.
The cardboard bike was dreamed up as a low cost
transportation alternative for emerging economies the world over. At less than $20, it might just be a viable option. The idea behind the plastic bike is to
provide a light, easy ride for commuters in a bike share program. Bike sharing is gaining popularity in major
metro areas. New York City has devised a
GPS locator system for people enrolled in the city’s bike share program. For example, you rode a shared bike to work
and left it at a designated bike share drop-off location. Later in the day and in another part of the
city, you need a bike for the ride home.
No problem, pull up your app and the GPS will lead you to the nearest
shared bike.
Mr. Smith’s plastic bike, specifically the bike frame, is polypropylene. At some point the builder envisions the bike
being made entirely from recycled plastic. It is a simple process that involves a mold. In standard bicycle frame manufacturing metal
is bent, heated, welded, notched and more.
Later it is painted and bedazzled with decals and artwork. The plastic bike comes out of the mold nearly
finished. It is a two part frame: an
inner system is for strength with an outer system to encase the inner plastic. Just add tires, chain, brakes and other
finishing touches as usual.
This plastic bike was first prototyped by Smith in
2008. It has yet to hit the market, any
market. What
happened? Some history may shed some
light…
Plastic
bikes are not a new idea. In fact,
Swedish researchers working for Volvo created a plastic bike in 1978. In 1982 these plastic Volvo bikes went up for
sale throughout Sweden. Despite a claim
of 10,000 pre-orders, sales of the “Itera” (pictured) were less than brisk. A public relations disaster ensued almost immediately
when news media types interviewed new owners about their plastic bike and all
they heard were complaints that the bike arrived in a box, unassembled, with
scores of missing parts. Another issue
was that plastic breaks and with a novice doing the assembly, it broke all too
often. In an effort to restore some glory,
Volvo hosted a five day bike ride for 1,000 people on Itera bikes. At the end of the event the bikes went up for
sale. All 1,000 were sold. A market did exist but too much bad publicity
still lingered and the market was just too small.
Volvo dropped the price to no avail and by
1985 the company was out of the plastic bike business. The problem the old plastic bikes had in
common with newer versions is stiffness.
Plastic just is not as stiff as metal.
So, plastic bikes can break and ruin your commute. Temperature fluctuations and harmful sunshine
degrades plastic. Ever leave a Frisbee in
the sun for too long? It almost turns
into Jell-o.
The Volvo plastic bike was not the first to fail. In 1973 an ejection molded bike made of Lexan
was prototyped and never sold. Hailed by
Popular Mechanics magazine as the
future of biking, the machine disappeared almost as soon as it arrived. The
Volvo debacle has soured plastic bike development. The Itera cost nearly $10 million in research
and development and the machine never sold in any great numbers. They
all should have learned a lesson from Benjamin Bowden. Mr. Bowden devised the space-age plastic “Bowden
Spacelander” plastic bike in the 1960s. Bankruptcy
was almost immediate.
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