Mark Searles, the founder of Cytronex

MARK Searles is an inventor – and he has turned his creativity to solving a conundrum that stops people ditching the car and getting on a bike.

“I have always been interested in how to overcome barriers when it comes to cycling,” reflects the founder of Cytronex, a gadget that turns your pushbike into a power-assisted e-bike.

“I have always been keen on issues around the environment, and making cycling as accessible as possible has long been an ambition of mine.”

Previous inventions included a folding pen that can be hung on a key ring and a credit card-size tube map.

A cyclist, he long wondered what could be done to make it easier for people to get from A to B, and create an easy, affordable and effective system that did not make your pedal-powered bicycle obsolete.

He told the Tribune: “In 2003, I decided to invent a product that would aim to get more people onto bicycles.

“I thought to myself, why don’t more people cycle? The key answer was because it can be difficult – it can be physically hard.

“So I sat down and started designing a kit with a number of different features.

“I thought having a retrofitted kit. It was a brilliant idea but something like this already exists. At that time there was just one kit on the market. It was really big and heavy, with a heavy lead acid battery – they were horrible, if they’d fallen on you they would injure you.”

The answer is the Cytronex, a lightweight motor hub that you can fit to a rear wheel. It boasts a battery that clips to the bike frame and looks like a water bottle. It includes sensors to help the cyclist measure speed and kicks in when extra oomph is required.

Today, Mark owns eight patents for inventions related to bicycles. One is the Smart Lever, a tool that takes the hassle out of changing a tyre and inner tube.

He added: “The eureka moment was a sensor we have patented.

“Our designs have evolved and we make the whole product from scratch at our Winchester headquarters.

“We don’t buy other components to put the kit together, and this helps with reliability, which cyclists using other retrofit systems say has always been an issue.

“Our raison d’être has been to design and create a lightweight, efficient way of converting your bike and to end with something better than the highest rating, purpose-built e-bike.”

• For more details visit www.cytronex.com