Primary Factory Visit and Release for Production Approved Prototype

Hello Backers,

After a weekend of recuperation, I have regained some as-semblance of the resetting of my internal time clock after my extremely long and delayed flight back from Asia. What will follow in the next several blog updates will be further and more detailed information about my factory visits to the facilities that are producing Stark Drive as well as videos of the same.

On initially arriving to the factory, we were greeted by the following scene while waiting for the elevator. These are not units of Stark Drive but rather completed electric bicycles for another customer that the factory works with. This factory supplies electric bikes all over the world, although from my discussions with the factory owner, no one has been able to negotiate the steep pricing discount that our team has managed.

Further more electric bikes that are palatalized and ready for shipping around the world. Of note is that we have negotiated boxes that are much more durable then the ones pictured here in order to prevent any form of shipping damage. Further our boxes are much more detailed and indicative of the quality product that you will be receiving from us. These are generic boxes. You can see what Stark Drives box will look like in a previous blog post.

Here you can see the works building the bikes after receiving the frames and components from other factories in China. I liken the process to Henry Fords Model T production with each worker having their own operation and responsibility to complete before its passed onto the next phase.

Here you can see the release for production Stark Drive City Prototype. There have been some enhancements to it in regards to the LED display and the motor disabling mechanism. We are also going to be adding something that we have personally never seen on any electric bikes outside of china. A locking mechanism that disables the motor wheel through a key lock system. Although locking systems that fit over the top of the wheel and through the rim are common, this is a new system that fits alongside the motor within the wheel that totally disables the wheel through the use of a key. Much harder to bypass such a system which is why its more commonly implemented in China. We are not sharing any photos of this system yet in order to prevent anyone copying our idea. It is something that will be able to be added to Stark Drive after the fact at marginal extra cost.

Here you see the LED system, Key Locking System as well as the other standard features of Stark Drive.

We will be sharing more photos and experience as well as photos of Stark Drive Advanced in upcoming blog updates.

Overall we were super impressed with the quality of the components which were shimano on these particular prototypes. We have promised Shimano or equivalent to all of our backers and unlike what some competing companies have commented that for the price we charge our bikes must be 'made of paper' one can clearly see here that its actually Aluminium 6061, not paper that our bikes are made with.

Sincerely

Stark Drive Team
Stark Drive LLC