High School Students Build Bicycles Out of Car Tires and Scraps

When you are armed with the right skills and will needed for a job, everything becomes a possibility. Two 16-year-old high school students, who were bored and had an unused car tire, decided to make bikes out of scraps and managed to turn this into a business where they buy 7 dollars of material and turn them into 150-dollar, futuristic-looking bicycles.

An interesting bicycle

Two Turkish students, Mücahit Gırgıç and Efe Demiral, were sitting outside of their house when the former's father gave them a car tire, saying they could do whatever they'd like to do with it. 

Bored amid a time where education has moved to the internet due to the COVID-19 restrictions in Turkey, Mücahit told Interesting Engineering in an interview that they decided to turn the tire into their new project. The design was a simple bicycle with a twist: a bicycle with a car's tire on the back. 

How did they do it?

In search of something they could use, they went to their local scrap dealer, Mücahit said. There they saw an idle bicycle body, which they were able to buy for 50 lira (7 dollars). 

The process of making the bicycle was not easy; however, Efe and Mücahit had the right skill set. The duo explained that they first cut the wheel and made it fit the bicycle rim.

Then, they widened the back of the bicycle to fit the tire. Mücahit said that they already had the welding equipment thanks to his uncle who had a shop.

He was very interested in welding, so he decided to learn more and was able to do the necessary steps to complete the bike.

Since the pedal system is normally smaller on a bike, it had to be extended with welding to fit the new design.

Once Efe painted the body, it was all complete, and they said that the whole thing cost them 40 dollars in total. 

When they rode the bike around the town, everyone was smitten and even wanted to have their picture taken with it. Some said that they wanted to buy one if they would sell it. Apparently, using the bicycle is easier than using a normal bike. 

Mücahit said in the interview that they were able to sell 12 bikes in total. 

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What are their goals?

As the next step, they say that they want to make the bicycle using a car rim. In a far off future, Mücahit also stated that they want to make one with a woodcutter engine, which would be an interesting project indeed.