Our story
FLIT’s goal is to make your city journeys a joy, allowing you to go further, faster, flitting around with ease.
As a team of designers, engineers and cyclists based in Cambridge, UK, FLIT have been inspired by the amazing cycling culture of the UK’s cycling capital. A city that mixes the old with cutting edge has been the perfect backdrop for our extensive product development and testing culminating in compact folding electric bikes that enable riders to nimbly flit around town.
Dave and Alex (co-founders) met in 2015 whilst studying in Beijing. Electric bikes were their fast and fun way of flitting 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
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
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.
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.
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.
Max Pinkney
Senior Mechanical engineer
With a decade of experience as an industrial designer, Max has a strong track record in designing processes from the ground up and will be influencing design decisions for the future fleet of bikes.
Kenisha van Keulen
Content manager
A content creator with an MA in Creative Media. Specialising in managing FLIT’s social media accounts, Kenisha works on creating engaging content and enhancing brand presence across digital platforms
Angus Wyllie
operations Engineer
With a Mechanical Engineering degree from Imperial College London, Angus is bringing diligence and execution to assist the team in building affordable world class bikes
Emma TebBS
Technician
A practical engineer, Emma has been honing her skills in multiple previous roles and is able to efficiently assemble the FLIT M2. Emma has a keen eye for fault finding and a commitment to excellence, providing our bikes with consistent quality.
Chris Mackay
Technician
Chris joined FLIT during the set up of our specialist bonding facilities, and has grown into an independent role executing the innovative bonding process. His work is integral to the production of the M2 and his keen eye for efficiency and stock keeping has shown a steady increase in production
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.
The story so far
FLIT founded in the UK’s cycling capital: Cambridge
awarded a Department for Transport grant to build our first prototypes
FINISHED our first prototype, AND presented at the Hello Tomorrow Conference in Paris
Alex presenting our first prototype (you’ll notice a huge difference to the current FLIT-16 design!)
Awarded a special commendation from the Design Council
We began working with our manufacturing partner, a specialist aluminium frame manufacturer, in Taiwan
Alex, Dave and Joe at a specialist fork factory
FINISHED OUR first manufacturing prototype, named the FLIT-16 after its 16″ wheels
Our second prototype – closer to the final FLIT-16 design, but still lots to change!
won the 2019 ACID Design & IP Champion Award
David Turpin, Designer, and Dave Henderson, Technical Lead, at the awards ceremony
launched THE FLIT-16 on Kickstarter, raising over 450% of our funding goal!
Dave, Alex and Joe celebrating the end of our Kickstarter campaign
finalists in the Eurobike Startup Awards
The FLIT-16 was chosen as one of the top 20 bike innovations by the EUROBIKE trade show (the biggest bike show in Europe!).
Production begins with pilot manufacturing run
Welding in the frame factory
awarded an enterprise fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering
Dave visits our manufacturing partner in Taiwan to oversee mechanical testing of frame parts & Batteries.
Dave’s ride to work – not too shabby!
Dave oversees final stages of manufacture & assembly in Taiwan
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dave was granted special permission to fly out to Taiwan so that he could oversee final assembly
Dave en-route to Taiwan to visit our manufacturing partner
won a grant from Innovate UK for a £214,000 project to re-invent ebike manufacture
FLIT-16 fleet arrives at our warehouse in Cambridge, UK – all delivered by end of January 2021
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.
built our FIRST workshop
The perfect space for our engineers to develop new ideas
Our first R&D workshop
Fully Charged OUTSIDE
Our first live event since the pandemic!
Dave and Matt showing off the FLIT-16
awarded Department for Transport TRIG grant
We worked on a top-secret battery project. Keep an eye out for this one as changing regulations put this project on ice…
named One of the best products at the Ebike Festival by T3 Magazine
Matt and Dave at the London Ebike Festival, very proud to hear the news!
The next generation of FLIT Announced: The M2
Not standing still, the FLIT engineers announce their next creation. A leap ahead of the FLIT-16.
launched M2 First Riders to our waiting list!
Before a public launch, we released a limited number of pre-orders for the M2 on our waiting list – these customers will be our M2 First Riders.
M2 Manufacture & Prototyping
The team head to our manufacturing partners to oversee the final steps of the M2’s creation: frame parts, components, and electrical system
Final tooling complete
Following the team’s trip to our manufacturing partners, tooling for parts complete and ready to mass produce
M2 PARTS AND COMPONENTS SHIPPED
Parts are finally on the way to Cambridge where the team is putting together everything we need for assembly
FIRST M2 DELIVERED
The culmination of years of work developing a new bonded frame manufacturing process
FUNDING ROUND ANNOUNCEMENT
FLIT successfully raises £1.2m from a group of investors to expand production in Cambridge and help bring the FLIT M2 to more customers
PROJECT SNOWDON
Lots of people ask us if the M2 can make it up their local hill, so we cycled it up Yr Wyddfa (Mount Snowdon) to prove a point
NEW WORKSHOP
FLIT moves into a new workshop in Cambridge, tripling production capacity
