Review: Skarper Electric Bike Conversion Kit

With nearly £13m in development costs three years of engineering, help from the Red Bull F1 team and the backing of Sir Chris Hoy is the Skarper worth the £1,495 price tag?

I've tested thousands of products over years, so it's not every day I get excited for a new package. However, given its eye watering development costs and the fact that it's backed by Sir Chris Hoy, I was pretty excited for the Skarper. I gave this one a proper test and after bashing it around for about a month, I'm happy to announce that this product really is an incredible piece of engineering.

And, from a 15 minute meeting with the founders, it's clear to see why. Their passion for the product and belief in the problem that they're solving has lead them to create something remarkable.

What is it?

I'd simply describe the Skarper as a universal e-bike attachment. In other words, it's a solid box about 60cm in width that will clip onto the back of any bike and turn it electric. The battery housed within gives about 37 miles (60 km) of assisted cycling on a single charge and can hit 25kmh pretty comfortably. There are different speed settings which are adjusted by pressing the large circular button and LED's display information about the mode the device is in and if it's connected to the pedal sensor.

In testing the Skarper, I found the power it can generate amazing! You fly through traffic easily and up hills it's epic. I also did a number of routes where the ground was bumpy and uneven finding the Skarper stayed very much in position on the bike. The main thing here is that it felt solid and didn't once give the impression it was going to fall off. My favourite thing though was the refreshing "click" it makes when you snap it into positions!

Why would you want one?

From our social media post, a lot of people are saying 'for that price why wouldn't I just get an e-bike?'. Well, say you want to use your bike for commuting during the week and go out riding at weekends. The Skarper will power you to work on weekdays so you don't break a sweat then can simply be removed from your bike in order for you to burn some calories on a weekend ride. Importantly, there's no performance decrease to the bike when it's not attached and that's the beauty of the system. It allows you to adapt your bike in a seamlessl transition to electric whenever you want.

There's also a case to be made that the Skarper keeps your bicycle feeling like your bike, so when you go electric the handling is familiar. Plus, the fact that it's detacheable means you can remove it and stop it from being stolen with your bike lol.

Set Up

To set up the Skarper you first have to replace your bike’s rear disc-brake rotor. This is a bit fiddly, but once it's done you don't have to touch it again and there are plenty of tutorials to help with the change. If you're still struggling just take it to a bike shop and they'll sort it in seconds.

You then have to attach a zip tie to your bikes rear metal bit that an attachment which allows the Skarper to clip in and retain its horizontal position when you're riding. The key thing to note here is that the distance the attachment is from the gearbox matters as if done incorrectly (as I did first) you won't be able to clip in the Skarper.

Lastly, a small sensor attaches with elastic onto the bikes crank which measures speed and cadence.

Justifying the price tag

There's no hiding the rather large £1,495 price tag, especially since many casual cyclists might prefer to buy a complete e-bike for that price. However, Skarper justifies the cost by pointing out that cheaper e-bikes often cut corners on quality. Since battery and motor components are expensive, a £1,000 e-bike may mostly cover the motor and battery, leaving the bike itself made from lower-grade, generic parts. Therefore, if you already have a quality bike, the Skarper will convert it into a high end e-bike for less than thousands of pounds needed to go out and purchase one. Whilst this may sound a bit far fetched, having tested a number of e-bikes (good and bad) I can completely see where they're coming from.

The cons

So there are two things you should be aware of before buying the Skarper. Firstly, it does get quite hot when you're using it for an extended period of time. This isn't a problem but just something to be aware of. Secondly, the unit weighs about 5kgs, so whilst it fits into a backpack, it's quite heavy to lug around for extended periods.

Our verdict

Look, there's no denying it's an expensive product. But, having tested it, I do believe it's something that's truly unique and worth the price tag. The freedom of being able to choose when to go electric isn't something to be taken lightly and the quality and performance of the product is apparent after just few minutes of use.