July saw not only the launch of the truly amazing Flit ebike, by Anti Copying in Design members Flit, but its designers David Turpin and Dave Henderson also received the 2019 British IP Day Design & IP Award from the IPO Director of Innovation and Research, Pippa Hall at the Furniture Makers Hall in London.

On receiving the award, the ACID Design & IP Champion 2019 winner, Dave Henderson the inventor of the ebike, with David Turpin said, “We’re really happy to receive this award, particularly for an ebike project. Ebikes are a great way to encourage more people to experience the health and wider social benefits of cycling. In developing this ebike, we focused not only on reducing weight, having it fold down small, and making sure it rides well, but also on ensuring that it has a coherent design that anyone would be proud to own.”

Read Judges Sarah Weir, OBE, Deborah Dawton, DBA and Dan Black, Black+Blum comments here.

About the Flit ebike – The Flit-16 weighs around 14kg with its battery. It’s designed to fold quickly, with a single lever on the stem folding the bars down, while the rear section of the bike folds underneath the frame. Fold the Flit ebike in just 10 seconds – with 3 simple steps to roll the bike, and a further step to complete the fold.

The Flit story – “As a team of designers, engineers and cyclists based in Cambridge, UK, we’ve been inspired by the amazing cycling culture of our city.  We love the way that cycling makes our cities more human and connected, and the sense of freedom it gives you.”

Dave and Alex (co-founders) met in 2015 whilst studying in Beijing. Electric bikes were their favourite way of zipping between lectures, being such a fast and fun way of getting round, it sparked their interest in ebikes. Dave, as an ex Jaguar Land Rover engineer, had always dreamed of developing an electric vehicle, whilst Alex’s vision was to help make our cities happier and healthier places to be. Together, they wanted to create a product that made city travel effortless, whilst fitting neatly into your lifestyle.

They relocated to the cycling capital of the UK to begin the Flit story, designing their folding electric bike from a blank sheet of paper. Over the past 3 years they’ve turned their pencilled sketches into a simple folding ebike: the beauty being that you can’t even tell that it’s electric. The fold gives you the flexibility to take it with you anywhere, whilst adding electric makes journeys effortless, fast and fun.