With clip-and-go” motor that electrically drives the rear wheel of nearly, any E-Bike with disc brakes.
Skarper’s Clip-On Motor Can Transform Any Bike into an E-Bike. Electric bikes have been around for a long time now. The first US patent for an E-bike was awarded to Ogden Bolton Jr. in 1895. The design he created featured a battery-powered bicycle that featured a hub motor inside a rear wheel. The battery on it was attached to the bike’s crossbar. In 1897, Hosea Libbey invented an e-bike that was propelled by a motor geared inside the hub of the crankset axle.
With evolving technology, motors and batteries are now more advanced but the basic mechanics of how a bike runs, remain the same. E-bikes sales currently stand at $41 billion in 2020 and are expected to grow to a whopping $120 billion by 2030.
How Skarper’s Journey Started?
Skarper and its technologies began during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. A keen cyclist in North London, Alastair Darwood began his search for an e-bike. Reluctant to invest in buying an E-bike, he started looking for options on how he could convert his regular bike into one. He looked upon the conversion methods that could convert a standard bike with a motor and battery.
Looking closely into the existing conversion kits, he realized that nearly all of them need you to either swap out your wheels for better-powered wheels or require a hub motor. For him, both these alterations were quite huge. Darwood was looking for a less invasive way to power up the bike. This turned his attention to the disc brakes.
Ultimately, he ended up making a clip-on motor with a battery pack that could transform any regular bike into an E-bike. This invention caught the attention of six-time Olympic champion and 11-time world champion, Chris Hoy. Hoy is highly interested in this project and has made a heavy investment in the invention.
How Does Skarper Work on Your Bike?
The device Darwood invented, requires you to replace the rear-brake disc rotor of your bike with its DiscDrive. The DiskDrive looks like a traditional disc-brake rotor and weighs around a 3-kilogram unit in which the battery unit is housed. This weight is not muchly noticeable unless you are running for a formula 1 race.
It also includes a 250-watt-hour motor that clips onto the frame of the bike. The DiskDrive rotor fits into the clip-on unit inside the gearing unit. The motor’s internal gearing unit turns the special brake rotor that spins the rear wheel. There is a small sensor that clips onto the bike’s crank remeasuring the speed and tempo as you pedal your bike.
Once the Skarper Diskdrive is placed in position, it claims to give you a speed of 60 kilometers of assisted cycling on an average speed of 25 kilometers per hour. This is the legal maximum speed in Europe and the UK. Once you have reached your destination, you can clip off the device and put on charging or simply store it in your bag. The battery charges in just 2.5 hours.
Skarper’s Confusing Price Point
With any invention, probably the most important impact is its commercial viability. While it may not require you to make any drastic changes to your bike, you still need to purchase the Skarper’s DiskDrive. Which is expected to retail for $1,190. This amount is closer to what a casual cyclist is expected to spend on an entire e-bike. You can try searching for a regular e-bike on Amazon. You will find at least 577 e-bike options that would cost less than this.
Darwood states that his device has real value for money. The cost of the battery and motor are high so essentially you end up paying for a motor, battery, and bike itself. If you go for the unbranded ones, it might not cost you more than £100 but if you go for buying from leading manufacturers like Trek then we can guarantee you will not find anything less than £2000. What Sparker is proposing is that go to a bike shop and spend £1000 on a good hybrid bike with branded and quality components and then update it with a Skarper’s device. This makes it only a one-time expense that can be used on any bike of your choice.
Clip On or Clip Off
This may sound like an awful lot of work for an average commuter. But the best part is that you don’t have to get a new bike for it to work. You can easily use it on your existing one. Making it easier for you to continue using the bike you have been using for years, as long as it uses disc brakes.
The unique selling point of this product is the ease with which it can be clipped on or clipped off. Chris Hoy states his ambition to join this project was to create an entirely new system that is easier to use. He further stated that his dream is to see this device being used in every major city in the coming 10 years.
This vision is appealing to any cyclist. It is certainly attractive to any e-bike user whose battery died on him while riding a heavy e-bike or anyone who lives in an upstairs flat and would not want his bike up and down to charge it when he can just take off the device and charge it. This is surely simpler and lighter.
What to Expect?
There is surely an attractive appeal to the whole proposition. It could be seen as extra help for getting back home from work or school, or a pretty steep hill. But as long as the price stays this high, this will remain a remarkable invention for only a limited group. The manufacturers who are fitting a DiskDrive onto their existing bikes are making their machines E-bike ready. This is going to open new doors for third-party motor and battery innovation.
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Skraper will hit the shops in 2023 making it the easiest and simplest e-bike conversion kit. But with the constantly changing landscape of urban mobility will surely have its share of the health benefits of regular cycling. It is expected to be a welcoming change.
