YikeBike

Problem

Cities are getting too congested and it's getting harder to move around

Hunch

There must be another bike configuration that is inherently smaller and designed for lower speeds, perfect for cities

Crunch

YikeBike, the worlds smallest, lightest electric folding bike

Munch

Create a brand around selling high quality YikeBikes and license the technology to other companies to create mass produced versions of the product

the story so far

The thinking behind this hunch was prompted by the Segway, even before it was launched. We thought it was a very interesting problem they were trying to solve and while the technology behind the Segway is impressive we thought there must be a way to do it lighter, simpler, smaller and cheaper. The result is a multi-award winning design that was named in the top 50 inventions of 2009 by Time magazine and has already been sold in 56 countries around the world.

However it was very expensive to produce and very hard to sell primarily because it is so different. A lot of clever folks have tried for quite a while to make it fly as a business but it is currently in hibernation mode - who knows what might happen. It certainly didn’t have the impact we hoped but was quite a fun project with some great people.