Hello Backers,

Production is in full swing with our manufacturing partner sparing no expense to ensure that you get the best electric bike on the market for the most affordable price ever. We are pleased to report that due to the volumes we have achieved with our launch we were able to upgrade the following:

• Higher quality metal folding pedals

• Brighter high intensity front light (included with all Stark Drive units at no charge)

• Color coordinated wheel rims

• Upgraded disc braking system (video as shown below).

That being said, we have approximately 75% of the orders for europe complete but try as we might our logistics partner is not willing to take a portion of the bikes and ship them out stating that they need all 100% of the EU based bikes complete for shipment meaning a few days delay but we are well on our way.

Note that the trade off that you backers have made to get the worlds most well equipped, affordable electric bike in the world is a bit of time. We are still working to fine tune the production and we are making headway.

PRICES WILL GO UP SOON

meaning that those that have backed us up to know have received the best deal imaginable.

We are also pleased to announce that we have made the maximum speed Stark Drive even more easy adjust as is seen in the videos below which show Stark Drive topping out at 37kph.

Black Speed Test

Gearing Caliberation

Power Systems Installation

Rear shocks Installation

Upgraded Brakes

Totally Concealed Electrical Wiring routed through the frame.

Wheel Truing

I know that everyone is anxious to get their bikes but please note that competing crowdfunding campaigns did not ship their first bike for almost a year after promised! We are achieving the same in just a few months after our original campaign ended. A little bit of patience will get you an overall better electric bike that will give you enjoyment for years to come.

MATE.Bike Lawsuit

Today we are also reporting that shortly, our lovely competitor Mate.bike will have yet another lawsuit to deal with, this one not for libel (or defaming us in their original indiegogo campaign) but this time for having our project removed from indiegogo for a fraudulent DMCA sent in by their team.

Their ultimate complaint: they were upset that the photos of our battery looked similar to theirs on our campaign. A battery that is a standard shape and size to fit in these standard bikes that have been manufactured since 2011. A photo that is available all over the web and can be found with a simple google photo search, not the least of which can be found on Alibaba from hundreds of identical folding bike resellers, albeit for more then we are offering our base model for to the end user.

We will shortly publish the entire rebuttal from our lovely competitor Mate.bike on our blog for anyone to look through. We believe in transparency and being completely forthright.

Know that instead of waiting a year to get your bikes, you will just be without the best bike in the world for a few months while we get everything loaded onto Trains, Boats, and Planes and ship them all around the world to our backers. We really do appreciate each and every one of you and that is why we are working extra hard to make sure you have the highest quality bike that will provide you with years of happiness.

Stark Drive Team
Stark Drive LLC

Hello Backers!

We are super excited over here. More then 2 years of preparation, planning, and development and finally we are pleased to announce the shipment costs for the first batch of orders have been paid for and are awaiting their considerably long journey to the EU!

I have received confirmation that the boxing is happening as we speak and will continue into the weekend. From there our contract with the factory includes loading onto delivery vehicles to delivery port. As you can see above, we are using a multitude of shipping methods after having determined which are most price effective based on delivery times. The shipment to Stockholm (due to the large amount of goods coming here) will be done by boat but the remainder will be going via Air or Train freight. The non-boat shipping is costing a minimum of 10X the price of boat shipping, a cost which we are covering for our backers due to the delays that we experienced with production. Through this we hope to express our gratitude to our backers which made Stark Drive possible. Once the bicycles get further on into their journey we will receive tracking information as to when they will be delivered to the end backers (you) as we have purchased a delivery service that includes delivery to the door. Note that any customs or duty fees will be charged directly to the end backer as has always been the case, this will be taken care of the local delivery carrier.

FAT TIRE

We are well into the production of the specialized fat tire frames which for a very minimal cost of upgrade, upgrades the frame as well as the tires for Stark Drive. The manufacturer has now been able to provide us with a date when they will be completed and ready for shipping, the date we have received for these units is September 30th. Below you can see a video of the production of these units. The most time intensive portion of the manufacturing is always the welding of the aluminum frames whereas once this is done its just a matter of adding all the accessories like lego bricks.

BATCH 2

We have sent the order for Batch 2 and the production is prioritized at our factory who now works primarily for us due to the volume of orders we have received. Of course it goes without saying that their priority at the current time is to finish the delivery of Batch 1 but the next orders are slated for manufacturing and completion with a current estimated completion date of October 15th. This date is not set in stone and may change depending on local hindrances. This is the difference between our company and those that operate retail stores, with our unbelievable prices comes a further associated risk as we have no 'stock' of bikes and each bike is custom built to order to the customers wishes. From one perspective we are operating a much more environmentally friendly method of production as there are no left overs, unsold bikes, or bikes that never reach an owner but on the other side of the coin the penalty is time. As you can see in the Iron Triangle diagram below we have managed to achieve what we believe are the two most important corners of this triangle and this coincides directly with the values and motto of Stark Drive.

We will be updating further in the coming days regarding the libel lawsuit with our lovely competitor Mate.bike (to which they have now finally replied to our initial RFI).

We are also very excited to announce (and we will go into more detail later) that we are in the final stages of signing a contract to open our first Boutique location in central Stockholm. Currently we plan no sales from this location. We will have the location for those that are interested in learning more about Stark Drive and trying an electric bike for the first time (or alternatively, trying the worlds most affordable electric bike for the first time).

with ❤

Stark Drive Team

Hello Backers,

we are nearing the end to the first batch now as is apparent by the heart of Stark Drive now complete and ready to 'mate' with the frame to provide you with hours of enjoyment and adventures.

Hundreds of Stark Drive PowerPacks charged and ready to go.

All the information about your battery pack will be clearly listed on the pack as well as all safety instructions to ensure you get the most life out of your battery pack. We are offering batteries in three sizes: 9ah, 13ah, and 17ah. Just as an example a 100kg rider can travel about 20km on pure electric power with a 9ah battery pack. We have additional packs available at incredible prices available on our website under the accessories section. We recommend you only use Stark Drive branded packs to ensure that you receive the highest quality and safety available.

JUST LIKE OUR IDOLS AT TESLA, ALL STARK DRIVE POWERPACKS USE PANASONIC BATTERIES.

 with ❤

Stark Drive Team
Stark Drive LLC

Hello Backers,

Another crucial step in the successful delivery of Stark Drive is to have a method of transporting the bikes to our valuable backers. We are pleased to announce that these boxes have now been delivered to the factory and are ready to receive all Stark Drive units.

We are still waiting on updates to the Fat Tire bikes and as soon as we get some photos/videos we will publish a blog update.

The hard tail bikes are on schedule to be finished with the standard Stark Drive bicycles. The video below is about 2 weeks old.

We will keep posting updates as they come in to us.

Sincerely,

Oscar
CEO, Stark Drive LLC.

Hello Backers,

the title says it all.

Hello Backers,

When we first set out to create the worlds most affordable electric bike our companies mission was straightforward and we knew with some hard work and dedication we could achieve our altruistic task. What we never expected was that there would be so many monumental hurtles standing in between us and delivering these ultra affordable electric bikes. We have had competitors file fraudulent DMCA claims, issues with our factory all of which resulted in slippage of our original timeline. Somewhat embarrassing considering that I personally have worked as a professional planner for over a decade and live by the motto: If you fail to plan you plan to fail.

What we were not able to plan for was the unexpected but with an intense, some might say 'Stark Drive' to succeed we pushed through and always looked to the inspiration of one of my idols, Elon Musk. He has also had his share of ups and downs and in an interview he conducted he eloquently articulated precisely what it takes in order to succeed. You can see the specific part of the video im referring to below:

Now what is on everyones mind is when are we finally sending out the first batch of several hundred bikes (orders before june 6th) and im pleased to announce they are completing their final assembly from September 10th to the 15th. Since they are going to be sent out to various parts of the world they will be leaving the factory in batches as follows: EU based bikes will be sent out in one batch and the North and South american bikes will be sent out in another batch. Other countries are generally in the low single digits for quantities so they will be sent out separately.

As promised (and due to the delay of manufacturing) we are shipping the first batch orders via non boat shipping (air being the most likely transport method used). Tracking information will be updated on your individual accounts as we receive the information from our carrier. If you backed us via Paypal, it will also auto-update through Paypal's homepage so you will have two sources to check the status of your bike.

None of this would have been possible without You, our backers who took this journey to create an affordable transportation solution for everyone and for that i want to express a heartfelt 'Thank You'.

Sincerely

Stark Drive Team
Stark Drive LLC

Hello Backers,

We just wanted to share with you a video taken about a week ago of the final frames for batch 1 finishing their lengthy manufacturing process. The longest lead time item for the manufacturing of our bikes is the aluminium frame as its made from scratch. The final step is the powder coating process which you can see here. in the video you can also see the blue Stark Drive frames being powder coated in a protected room.

We are receiving information from the factory as to the final date for manufacture for the first batch but its not long now, we are talking days, not weeks or months. Assembly is the easiest and fastest part in the whole manufacturing process.

We appreciate all the backers patience and we are pleased to have over $500.000 USD of backing now allocated to the launch of Stark Drive.

Finally you can see the following:

We were also contacted by an organization in Nepal a couple days ago whom were in Stockholm and took a test ride on our bikes. They come from a very mountainous part of Nepal (i would assume that applies to most of the country) and they were in disbelief when they saw our pricing. For a comparison they recently bought a less well equipped electric bike from a local Indian based distributor for double the price of Stark Drive. They want the electric power solution to be completely renewable with solar powered charging stations located throughout the country with no dependence on a sometimes unreliable electric grid. The entire motivation and values of Stark Drive are to get electric bike technology out to as many people as possible by removing the pricing barrier. Its exciting for us to be a part of such a worthwhile endeavor to enable affordable transportation in such remote regions. This consequently will lead to enhanced quality of life for everyone with the ability to more easily transport medications or even medical practitioners to remote regions that would be harder to reach otherwise.

It all begins with communication.

Suryanarayanan Balasubramanian Test riding Stark Drive in Stockholm.

If any other NGO's would like to get into contact with us to help distribute Stark Drive to those who need affordable transportation solutions please email us at hello@starkdrive.com.

with ❤

Stark Drive Team
Stark Drive LLC

If you want to drive Stark you crave Stark Drive. We are pleased to announce that we have partnered with Gregersen Communications in Denmark to promote Stark Drive to the Danish Market. We firmly believe that we are the best consumer electric bike in the world and Gregersen is going to help us to spread that message to the Danes.

Here is a photo of the CEO and I outside Sankt Annæ Plads 13 with their very own Stark Drive Unit.

We are pleased to be working with the best PR firm in Denmark!

From Denmark with ❤

Oscar Stark
CEO, Stark Drive LLC

We wanted to share some videos taken at the factory handling the production of the frames for Stark Drive.

Complete Units

Polishing

Welding

We are soon finished batch 1 production and thereafter will begin batch 2 production.

More information on dates coming in a future update.

Dear Backers,

Its been a long road and there are still hurtles to overcome but we couldn't be more ecstatic to show you the first unboxing of Stark Drive for a lucky backer, Darren, in Singapore. In the photos you can also see the rear hub Stark Drive motor as well as the Stark Drive locking system that Darren chose to add to his unit purchase.

As you can see we used very heavy duty double walled cardboard for the transportation but the Stark Drive branding is lacking as this was not ready at the time of shipment.

We expect to hear more from Darren Shortly.