The Swiss drive specialist Maxon Motor made headlines with its micromotors for NASA. Now the company is entering the e-bike business. A system is being launched under the name Bikedrive, which is to include a particularly powerful and compact rear-wheel drive for bicycles.

Developed and manufactured in Switzerland, the unit accelerates from 0 to 30 km/h in just 3 seconds. A normally trained rider can master 1,000 meters of altitude with an average gradient of 11% in 30 minutes. And with significantly less energy consumption than other e-bike drives, according to the Obwalden drive specialists. The know-how for this is based on motors for medical technology, industrial automation or aerospace. Nasa Mars missions or, more recently, for the Esa comet landing serve as examples of this.

The drive should also feel at home on a mountain bike. Not only does the high torque equip the biker for steep climbs, but with its compatibility with 12 mm rear wheel axles and 142 millimeter installation width, the motor is also equipped for the latest axle standards. Downhill, the drive also seems to be quite well placed, as the YouTube clip below shows.

"Our goal was to bring the most compact and at the same time most powerful bike drive onto the market," says Eugen Elmiger, CEO of Maxon Motor. 50 years of experience in precision drive technology have gone into the Bikedrive system. Sales of the pedelec retrofit set will start in Switzerland in May 2015 with an exclusive dealer network. Type approval for the bike drive is not required.

The drive from the Sachseln-based company can be tested at the Bike Days 2015 in Solothurn from May 8 - 10.

www.maxonbikedrive.com