Our 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 Cambridge feel 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 fast and fun way of zipping between lectures, and sparked their interest in how ebikes could be used elsewhere. Dave, as an ex-Jaguar Land Rover engineer, had always dreamed of developing his own electric vehicle, whilst Alex’s study of transport policy had convinced him that our cities could be 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 moved to Cambridge, the cycling capital of the UK, to begin the FLIT story with just a few ideas on a piece of paper. Since then, the FLIT team has turned those early pencilled sketches into a simple folding bike, designed from scratch to be electric.

Meet the team

Alex Murray, Managing Director at FLIT

Alex Murray

Managing Director

With keen interests in cycling, technology and public policy, Alex is delighted to bring his experience to a project that combines all three. Alex leads the commercial side of the business so that the engineers can focus on what they love doing best: building great products.

Dave Henderson, Technical Lead at FLIT

Dave Henderson

Technical Lead

An automotive engineer by training, Dave is working on his dream to make electric vehicles of all types a reality. Dave has overall responsibility for product design and integration. His fluent Mandarin helps us build strong relationships with partners in Taiwan and China.

David Turpin, Designer at FLIT

David Turpin

Designer

A designer with over 20 years of product development experience in France, Hong Kong and the UK, David makes sure that our ebike always looks its best.

Crispin Moller

Marketing Lead

With an MSc in Strategic Marketing and a professional background in marketing consultancy, Crispin is responsible for developing the FLIT brand whilst boosting community engagement.

Matt Thompson, Design Lead at FLIT

Matt Thompson

Design Lead

With a Manufacturing Engineering degree from Cambridge and professional experience in technical consultancy, Matt works to bring the fun and flexibility he finds travelling by bike to everything he designs at FLIT.

Adam Morrison, Design Engineer, FLIT

Adam Morrison

Design Engineer

With a degree in Product Design Engineering and an ambition to tackle customer focused challenges, Adam has joined the engineering team and will use his own cycling experience to help develop innovative products which deliver memorable experiences.

Harry Kettle

Design Engineer

As a keen cyclist with a degree in Engineering from Cambridge University, Harry aims to drive the creation of innovative, customer-centric bike designs at FLIT that prioritise a great user experience.

The story so far

March, 2015

Dave & Alex (Co-Founders of FLIT) met whilst studying in Beijing


Dave & Alex at the Great Wall

Electric two-wheelers were booming in China at the time, and we saw a real opportunity to develop an ebike for European cities. We wanted to design a folding ebike that could be taken on trains, undergrounds and buses: giving people lots of flexibility when travelling through the city.

March, 2015
July, 2016

We relocated back to the UK, to the cycling capital Cambridge to start FLIT

July, 2016
August, 2016

David Turpin, an Industrial Designer, joined our team

David Turpin, Designer at FLIT
David designed the iconic ‘pop phone’!

David’s job was to turn Dave’s engineering drawings into beautiful designs.

August, 2016
December, 2016


We were awarded a Department for Transport grant to build our first prototypes

December, 2016
October, 2017

We built our first prototype, which we presented at the Hello Tomorrow Conference in Paris!

AM with Bike at Hello Tomorrow (Compressed)
Alex presenting our first prototype (you’ll notice a huge difference to the current FLIT-16 design!) 

October, 2017
June, 2018

Awarded a special commendation from the Design Council!

Flit lightweight folding ebike - winning funding from Design Spark

June, 2018
July, 2018

We began working with our manufacturing partner, a specialist aluminium frame manufacturer, in Taiwan

Flit engineering stories - inside the factory
Alex, Dave and Joe at a specialist fork factory

July, 2018
November, 2018

Our first manufacturing prototype (which we named the FLIT-16, after its 16″ wheels) was made

Flit folding electric bike unfolded
Our second prototype – closer to the final FLIT-16 design, but still lots to change!

November, 2018
May, 2019

Our first round of prototypes built on tooling: Marengo and Maya!

Flit lightweight folding ebike - flit-16 in marengo grey and maya blue
Meet Marengo and Maya, the look is mostly there now!

May, 2019
June, 2019

We won the 2019 ACID Design & IP Champion Award

ACID Award Win
David Turpin, our Designer, and Dave Henderson, our Technical Lead, at the awards ceremony

June, 2019
July, 2019

We launched on Kickstarter, raising over 450% of our funding goal!

Team after Kickstarter launch for the FLIT-16 folding ebike
Dave, Alex and Joe celebrating the end of our Kickstarter campaign

July, 2019
September, 2019

We were finalists in the Eurobike Startup Awards

Eurobike Pitch

The FLIT-16 was chosen as one of the top 20 bike innovations by the EUROBIKE trade show (the biggest bike show in Europe!).

September, 2019
October, 2019

Production begins with pilot manufacturing run

Flit lightweight folding ebike - welding has begun!
Welding in the frame factory

October, 2019
January, 2020

We were awarded an enterprise fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering

January, 2020
February, 2020

Dave visits our manufacturing partner in Taiwan to oversee mechanical testing of frame parts

Flit lightweight folding ebike - riding to the factory
Dave’s ride to work – not too shabby!

February, 2020
February, 2020

Batteries complete, Dave brings two demo bikes back for UK test rides


FLIT-16 batteries all boxed up and ready to go

February, 2020
June, 2020

Manufacture well underway – all CNC main frame parts complete


CNC-ed frame parts ready to go! This is part of the headset at the front of the bike. Not sure what CNC means? CNC milling is a process of gradually removing material from a solid block until you reach the desired shape. We have lots of complicated shapes in the FLIT-16 which CNC milling allows us to create.

June, 2020
August, 2020

Dave oversees final assembly in Taiwan

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dave is granted special permission to fly out to Taiwan so that he can oversee final assembly
Dave en route to Taiwan
Dave en route to Taiwan to visit our manufacturing partner

August, 2020
September, 2020

Final stages of manufacture: painting & assembly

For a backstage tour of what happens during these final stages, have a read of our blog post here.

Hand-finishing marengo grey FLIT-16 frames

September, 2020
October, 2020

We won a grant from Innovate UK for a £214,000 project to re-invent ebike manufacture

October, 2020
November, 2020

FLIT-16 fleet arrives at our warehouse in Cambridge, UK


The FLIT team with some of the first FLIT-16 fleet
Quality checking begins – we check and test ride every single bike to make sure that it’s perfect before sending to customers

November, 2020
January, 2021

All bikes from our first manufacturing batch delivered!

Happy customers all around the world.

Time to celebrate! Thanks so much to one of our customers who sent this photo all the way from New York City

January, 2021
February, 2021

#FlitFoldFast Competition

We ran a competition to see which one of our riders could fold their FLIT-16 the fastest.
The answer… an incredible 7.43 seconds!

Meet Stuart, King of the Fold

February, 2021
April, 2021

We built our dream workshop

The perfect space for our engineers to develop new ideas
Wide Angle of the new workshop
Our R&D workshop

April, 2021
May, 2021

Great to see our riders enjoying their FLIT-16s

… and leaving such lovely reviews on Trustpilot.
Happy riders + Trustpilot review
Happy riders

May, 2021
July, 2021

#FlitTightFit Competition 

We ran a competition to see where our riders could fit their FLIT
Jeremy's winning shot
The winning entry! Jeremy fit his FLIT into the back of his Austin 7, Chummy – the perfect road trip set up with the picnic basket too.

July, 2021
September, 2021

Fully Charged OUTSIDE

Our first live event since the pandemic!
Fully Charged OUTSIDE 2021
Dave and Matt demo-ing the FLIT-16

September, 2021
February, 2022

FLIT awarded Department for Transport TRIG grant

We’re working on a top secret project… keep an eye out for announcements!

February, 2022
May, 2022

FLIT released the Commuter Edition

You asked, we delivered. The Commuter Edition of the FLIT-16 has a free kickstand and mudguards and reinforced steel parts to handle the toughest commutes.

FLIT-16 Commuter Edition folding ebike standing on a pretty garden terrace

May, 2022
November, 2022

A new generation is coming…

The team have been working hard behind the scenes to launch an even better folding ebike.

Dark disk brakes teaser photo of new generation FLIT ebike

November, 2022
February, 2023

We launched M2 First Riders to our waiting list!

Before a public launch, we released a limited number of pre-orders for our brand new model, the M2 on our waiting list – these customers are our M2 First Riders.

M2 folding ebike Handlebars

February, 2023
April, 2023

Fully Charged LIVE South!

We attended the Fully Charged LIVE South show in Farnborough Exhibition Centre!
The FLIT team at Fully Charged LIVE South

April, 2023
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