As one of the most decorated track cyclists of all time, Sir Chris Hoy might not seem an obvious candidate to back the burgeoning electric bike movement. The common refrain, after all, is that e-bikes aren’t real bikes.

However, the six-time Olympic gold medalist has done exactly that, investing in a fledgling U.K. startup that has built a click-on contraption that makes it easier to convert a pushbike to electric and back again with minimal fuss.

Skarper, as the company is called, has raised £12.8 million ($16.3 million) since its inception in 2020, with Hoy contributing to an early seed tranche. While the click-on e-bike system was originally mooted for a 2023 launch, the first production run only started going out last week to a few hundred people, with the remaining pre-orders set for the coming months.

TheTechSpot” chatted with Hoy as he took receipt of the first official Skarper delivery (an investor’s perk, for sure) to get his take on why this could be the next big thing in the world of e-bikes—even if you do prefer pure pedal power, as someone of Hoy’s stature surely does.

“I’m probably not the kind of person you’d imagine would be an e-bike advocate, but once I tried my first e-bike years ago, I got it,” Hoy told “TheTechSpot. “When you see that you’re still cycling, you’re still using your body, but you’re getting that ‘invisible hand’ pushing you along, you get it. And you realize that for certain situations, you’d much rather ride on a pedal-assist bike than on a non-pedal-assist bike.”

The benefits of electric bikes are well understood. A commuter might not want to arrive at the office sodden with sweat, making motorized support for those uphill climbs an appealing proposition. There’s also the reduced environmental impact with zero emissions compared to other motorized transport, while e-bikes can also circumvent heavy traffic with aplomb, cutting through lines of cars and winding through parks and other spaces typically out of bounds to motorized vehicles.

And some people simply can’t get out and about on a fully self-propelled bike, be that due to their age or a health condition.

But not everyone wants to buy a dedicated e-bike, especially if they already have a bike. And this is where Skarper enters the fray. 

While electric bike conversion kits have existed for some years, Skarper’s pitch is all about ease—not only is it click-on and click-off, but it also causes minimal disruption to the bike itself. Indeed, co-founder and COO Uri Meirovich stresses that Skarper isn’t about “changing” or “converting” a bike.

“We’re here to enhance it,” Meirovich told The TechSpot. “Traditional conversion kits change your bike permanently, often compromising its original design and ride quality by changing critical components such as the wheel of the bike, running wires all over, or adding a battery on the handlebars or elsewhere, compromising the bike’s balance and appearance.”

So in some ways, this is all about having two bikes in one. This means that someone with a beloved road-, mountain-, hybrid-, or gravel-bike doesn’t have to compromise the integrity of its original design and quality.

Like all great ideas, it’s very simple when it’s already part of the bike—a disc brake, which already deals with huge forces, huge torque [rotational force], and huge amounts of heat,” Hoy continued. “So that’s a great starting point, to drive the back wheel using the structural rigidity and integrity of the frame. From an engineering perspective, I think it’s a beautiful solution.

Once the Skarper unit is mounted, it can be removed in seconds, but it’s also possible to disable the e-bike functionality by turning it off or by engaging “pause mode” by back-pedaling three times if the rider doesn’t need electric assistance for a while. This can also conserve battery.

The Skarper system takes 2.5 hours to fully charge from empty, providing a range of up to 50 km (31 miles) with a top speed of 25 km/hour (15 miles/hour).

Grand design

Skarper counts some 22 employees, including more than a dozen engineers spanning the industrial, mechanical, electronics, software, and testing disciplines. Additionally, the company worked closely with Red Bull’s Advanced Technologies outfit, which is behind the Red Bull Formula One racing team.

However, Hoy himself was involved in the design process from the get-go.

“My input has been from a cyclist’s perspective—that’s my area of expertise, obviously,” Hoy said. “It was all about how it rides and how it feels. Does Skarper affect the handling? What can we get away with in terms of size, weight, or shape? I would be a kind of test pilot—I would take the unit away, and I was properly using it and testing it, applying it in different scenarios and situations.”

However, there’s no escaping the price point—at £1,500 ($1,900), Skarper is not cheap by any stretch. But it’s not pitched as a budget conduit for obtaining an e-bike, and it’s not meant as a device that will be used once in a blue moon.

“Let’s say you have a £1,000 e-bike: the quality of the componentry, the brakes, the gears, the tires, the materials used on the frame-set, the saddle—everything about it is ‘budget,’” Hoy said. “It’s the cheapest they can make it to try and keep that price down. With Skarper, this is basically the highest quality motor you could get, and you’re attaching it to your pride and joy. And if you look at the number of times you’ll use it throughout a year, it will become very economically viable.”

There’s also the issue of security. An expensive standalone e-bike is an alluring proposition for thieves, and we’re even seeing startups spring up off the back of this trend, helping victims reclaim their stolen bikes. With Skarper, a user can, of course, attach it to their $5,000 road bike, but equally they can attach it to a heap of junk to give it a little extra pizzazz and then remove it when they get to their destination.

“I envisage somebody with an old, tatty bike that they’ve had for years, or maybe they just bought on eBay—something that they’re happy to leave locked up outside their office,” Hoy said. “Nobody’s going to bother stealing it or even look twice at it. But then, they can clip this onto it and convert it to a really high-quality e-bike.”

For now, Skarper is only shipping to U.K. customers; however, Meirovich confirmed that it will open orders to mainland Europe in mid-2025, with the U.S. to follow. Notably, the model that will eventually go on sale in the U.S. will have a greater top speed than that in the U.K. and European Union (EU), as the U.S. has an upper speed limit of 20 mph for this kind of vehicle.

“Skarper has received well over 100 distribution requests from all over the world, including big box retailers in the USA and key players in most European markets,” Meirovich said, adding that few modifications will be required to fulfill international orders. “There are minor changes that will be needed to adhere to EU and US regulations, and we are in the process of obtaining these certifications.”