British Performance Meets British Innovation - Power When You Want It, Acoustic When You Don't

London, 16 January 2026 - Skarper, the British engineering company behind the click-on e-bike system developed with Red Bull Advanced Technologies, today announces that Ribble, the leading premium British bike brand, is offering Skarper to its customers.

By stocking Skarper alongside its range of award-winning integrated e-bikes, Ribble offers riders the flexibility of occasional electric assistance across its acoustic (non-electric) bikes. In addition, customers will be able to design their bespoke bike within Ribble's renowned Bike Builder and add the Skarper drive system to their bike build.

Skarper is available to buy both online and in Ribble's four UK showrooms.

Why It Matters

For the first time, riders can add a removable electric assist option to Ribble's range of road, gravel, and adventure bikes - transforming a high-performance machine into a high-performance e-bike in seconds, and back to a pure acoustic ride the moment they choose.

One of Skarper’s great benefits is portability - a Skarper unit can be shared across multiple bikes, switching between bikes and riders as needed, whether that’s within the family or across your collection of performance and leisure bikes.

What are the benefits of riding with Skarper? Cyclists sometimes want help with hills, headwinds and those longer days in the saddle. They may want to keep up with faster friends and stay together on family rides. What they don't want is to give up the bike they love. Skarper solves this.

Quotes

Ean Brown, CEO, Skarper "Ribble represents everything we admire: British engineering, beautiful design, and an obsession with ride quality. When a brand like Ribble - with 128 years of heritage and a world-class e-bike range already - chooses to stock Skarper, it validates our approach. We're proud to be part of their offering."

Sean Hastings, CEO, Ribble ​ "We love the idea of Ribble riders being able to use their acoustic bike but have the flexibility of occasional electric assistance, without it being a permanent thing. The Skarper system complements our award-winning range of lightweight integrated e-bikes, with the potential to bring a new lease of life to an existing bike and the benefit of being shareable across several bikes.”

Availability

Skarper is available now at ribble.com and in Ribble showrooms nationwide. Integration with Ribble’s Bike Builder will launch in February alongside test rides in selected Ribble showrooms. ​

Product Highlights

Skarper

A selection of product imagery is available here.

The Skarper product page on Ribble Cycles can be found here.

About Ribble Cycles

The original outlier, Ribble has been at the forefront of British cycling since 1897. From its headquarters in Preston, Lancashire, Ribble designs and builds award-winning road, gravel and adventure bikes direct to riders across the UK and Europe. The brand's Bike Builder platform allows riders to customise the specification and colour of their bike to suit their style, with every bike made to order in the UK by Ribble’s skilled mechanics.

About Skarper

Skarper is a British engineering company creating a new way to go electric, with a patented DiskDrive® click-on e-drive developed with leading motorsport engineers from Red Bull Advanced Technologies. Backed and championed by six-time Olympic Champion Sir Chris Hoy, Skarper has received top honours at Eurobike, Red Dot, and iF Design - recognising both its innovation and design excellence.

Press Contacts

Ribble Cycles: Nick Howes at Shift Active Media - nick.howes@shiftactivemedia.com
​Skarper: Jonathan Wells-lemze, Head of Marketing, Jonathan@skarper.com

Tom Copeland

Founder & Director

• tom@paceupmedia.com
• +44 (0) 7761 537175