GEAR
SKARPER
Electric cars are all the rage right now, but what you can’t do is turn a petrol car into an EV just by clipping a 4kg box to it. But in the bike world, that’s exactly what you can do thanks to Red Bull Advanced Technologies and a British inventor’s Very Good Idea. The Skarper clips to the back wheel of almost any regular bike with disc brakes and turns it electric. The detachable drive unit contains a 240Wh battery mated to a 250W motor – the clever part is the gearbox contained within Skarper’s ‘DiskDrive’ replacement rear brake disc. This allows the brakes to operate as normal, but torque to be delivered to the back wheel through the hub. The claim is 37 miles of range and a 2.5hr recharge. Skarper.com; £1,250