The Rubbee X makes converting your standard bicycle to electric easier than ever

By Luke Dormehl Published November 21, 2017

Are you the owner of a regular bicycle who now wishes that you had invested that money in an electric ebike instead? Rather than wallow in buyer’s remorse, you may instead want to check out a new Kickstarter campaign for the Rubbee X, a lightweight conversion device that promises to give any regular bike an electric makeover.

“Rubbee X works by providing electric assist directly to the rear tire via an electric friction roller,” Gediminas Nemanis, CEO of Rubbee, told Digital Trends. “It has modular batteries to extend the rides, regenerative braking, and not a single wire. We track the pedaling pattern by attaching a small wireless sensor to the pedal crank. This way, we know when and how much additional support to provide to the rider in real time. There are no buttons to push; just pedal and your power will be multiplied 2 to 3 times. It’s a pure electric assist system.”

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Rubbee first burst onto the scene with its motorized roller bike conversion system back in 2013. This latest product represents the third iteration of that idea, giving the team plenty of time to hone their design. It also features a bunch of new innovations — including the ability to replace batteries, rather than being stuck with the one integrated lithium-ion battery pack of previous models, a new regenerative braking feature that’s activated by pedaling backwards half a revolution, and an 14-LED brake light and turn indicator.

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rubbee x kickstarter bicycle rubbee2 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Rubbee X — Image used with permission by copyright holder

rubbee x kickstarter bicycle rubbee1 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

rubbee x kickstarter bicycle rubbee4 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

rubbee x kickstarter bicycle rubbee5 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

“All previous generations of Rubbee were based on all-metal construction, which made them heavy,” Nemanis said. “We already had the fastest installation time in the world — around 7 seconds — but with the new Rubbee X, which is about 50 percent lighter than its predecessors, the installation is even quicker. It now takes about 1 second. We also used to have one wire going to the pedal sensor, but now Rubbee X is completely wireless. This enables the unit to be installed super-easily by everyone. We’re offering Ikea-like user friendliness.”

If you’re interested in acquiring a Rubbee X of your own, you can currently pre-order a unit on Kickstarter for a starting price of 269 British pounds ($356). Shipping is set to take place in June 2018.

Until then, you’ll just have to keep pedaling a bit harder!

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…

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