Flit tweaks its ‘16’ before 2020 launch
Flit, the folding ebike designer, brought the latest prototype of its first bike into the Cambridge Independent’s offices last week.
The Flit-16 will be launched next May but early bird offers mean that sales have already started.
Designed over three years by Dave Henderson, formerly a Jaguar Land Rover engineer and Alex Murray, whose experience is in public policy and business, the Flit boasts a aluminium-enclosed battery built into the top tube. It weighs 14kg, has a range of up to 50km on a single charge, and is made in Taiwan.
Dave went to Taiwan to collect the latest prototype.
“We do the design here then 3D print it,” he explained. “When we’re happy we send the technical drawing to Taiwan. They test it and build it - that process takes four months, which is quite quick but I want it to be faster, by building the prototype in-house, welding it all up and testing it. We can machine the parts here. This option is informing our design processes going forward, because the faster we can develop the product the better, and in the long run saves us a fortune.”
Flit is also “looking at doing the assembly in the UK”, though probably not pre-launch.
“The final tooling is done now,” Dave says. “There’s still some tweaks - a more comfortable saddle is required. We’ve found one that’s made in Taiwan. On the frame side there’s not much to change. The pedals we’re still playing about with - they could be metal or lightweight plastic, which are lighter. And the plastic pedals are a bit narrower when folded, which has the advantage that they can go between the wheels, so you can roll the bike backwards when walking along.”
The Flit-16 weighs 14kg.
Tweaks on the prototype shown here include a round front light, new front brakes, new display and reworked parts. He’s not 100 per cent happy with the new display either, preferring one which shows the speed the Flit is travelling at - it’s limited to 25km/hour (15.5mph) - to the existing option.
“Most of my focus at the moment is on quality control, beyond that is switching to the next product.”
The next model is “just a bit of paper at the moment, but it’s more of an ambitious project - still folding, still an electric bike, but it doesn't need to be so small, just really light and folding. We’re just at the very early stages of development.”
Expect an investment round in the new year “to expand the team, including the number of engineers, and what we do”.
“The Kickstarter campaign paid for the tooling and the first bikes, the investment round will be to expand what we’re doing. Current angel investors are interested in extending their interest, and we’d add some venture capital firms.”
Dave loves working for a smaller team where “you get involved in the overall project” rather than at a larger organisation where “you can spend months designing a single part”.
The Flit-16 is on sale now on pre-order for £1,699, with an expected full retail price in May 2020 of £2,500.
