Bike a great idea on paper

BLAST OFF: Student Waisake Lewenilovo tests the cardboard motorcycle made by Dominic Furket (left), Glen Northcott, Matt Ward and Joseph Sherman-Mendez. PHOTO/STUART MUNRO 160615WCSMMOTORBIKE1

Wanganui City College technology students had a rare treat on Tuesday - seeing a cardboard motorcycle ridden in their classroom.

The bike, constructed by WelTEC engineering students Dominic Furket, Joseph Sherman-Mendez, Matt Ward and Glen Northcott is powered by hand drills and driven by wooden gears.

Mr Furket said the project was set by tutor Rudi Zettler and the brief was to create the bike from cardboard and power it to travel for a distance of five metres.

"We spent 80 hours putting it together using a hot glue gun and pva glue to stick it all together."

Teammate Sherman-Mendez said the shape of the bike was inspired by the movie Tron and shapes were cut out using knives and scissors.

"It is within your capabilities to do something like this yourselves - assemble a team you can work with and hope you don't kill each other in the process," he told the City College students.

Mr Ward, the lightest member of the team, demonstrated riding the bike but Mr Furket said it was strong enough to take the weight of each individual team member.

"We experimented with the corrugations in the cardboard and found they were stronger at certain angles" said Ward.

Mr Zettler said it was the first time he had set the challenge and the four students had excelled at the task.

"They weren't given a budget. They had to fund it from their own pockets and they went all out to fill the brief.

"Previously students have made little cars propelled by rubberbands and I wanted to give these students something large scale that would test their design abilities."

Wanganui City College head of technology Chris Donaldson said when he heard about the bike he asked if it could be brought to Wanganui for a visit.

"We had changed the focus for our Year 12 and 13 Design Technology classes from a challenge to innovation and this bike is a great piece of innovation.

"A number of our students build mini-moto bikes each year and there was a lot of interest in the cardboard bike."