He built a $9 cardboard bike - and it works

He spoke with his wife, who urged him to pursue the idea anyway because she knew he "would drive everyone crazy" if he didn't try it.

Gafni had worked on stents, robotics and other machines in the past, he recounts in the video. He latched onto the idea of origami, which increases the tensile strength of paper through folding.

He began experimenting with folding corrugated cardboard, and succeeding in building a platform that could support a car.

So he knew he could make the cardboard strong. But his first prototype of a bicycle, "looked like a hybrid of packaging box and bike."

Gafni said he knew he had to make it look like a real bike for it to be successful.

"That's where the real challenge started," he said.

"I basically took everything I knew and focused it to work with the material to accomplish what I wanted to do: wheel structure, frame design and strength, transmission design, cardboard seats. And then things started to click together."

Gafni had created his dream. It cost him $9 to make and Gafni figures he could sell one for $50 or $60, according to one report.

"It's strong, it's durable, it's cheap," he said of the bike, which can be seen in the video. "What I like about it the most - it's made out of cardboard."