Sevenoaks dad transforms pink ladies' bike into e-bike using 70 recycled vape batteries

A crafty dad has ingeniously transformed his "un-stealable pink ladies' bicycle" into a nifty e-bike that can hit speeds of up to 15mph, after a successful test ride, and he's now gearing up to use it for his daily commute.

Mark Hopgood, a 55-year-old software engineer and musician from Sevenoaks, Kent, hatched the plan earlier in 2024 when his electric bike conked out and he faced a hefty £1,200 bill for a replacement.

The inventive father of two has been amassing hundreds of thrown-away vapes over the last year with a helping hand from his son Ned, 20, and has been tinkering with their batteries to power an array of gadgets, including his iPhone and musical gear.

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After snapping up a motorised wheel, Mark dedicated weeks to meticulously testing each of the 70 batteries in his shed to ensure they were up to snuff before rigging them together and hooking them up to his bike.

Come May, Mark put his DIY e-bike through its paces on a three-mile jaunt to Sevenoaks and is already plotting his "stage two" model, which he promises will be less of a wire-fest.

He's keen to pass on his designs to fellow enthusiasts and is mulling over running a workshop for anyone keen to craft their own e-bike, but he's quick to stress the need for safety measures to prevent the batteries from overheating and bursting into flames.

"There must be millions of these vapes around, it's just incredible," Mark shared with PA Real Life. "The technology is no different to any other lithium-ion battery, it's exactly the same as the cells that are in a Tesla."

"I don't think there are many facilities for recycling disposable vapes, so there's got to be a better way of using them until the end of their life cycle. I knew that each of the batteries was to spec but I didn't know whether the shed would catch fire overnight."

Mark had been using an e-bike since 2017 for his daily commute to his Canary Wharf office. However, when his electric bike broke down in February this year, he began to ponder.

"When I took it to the shop to try and get it fixed they said 'Oh, you're better off buying a new one' and said it would cost £1,200," Mark revealed. "So that sort of spurred me on to finding another way."

He purchased a standard seven-speed pink Cannondale Adventure 2 bike online and decided to transform it into an e-bike himself.

"So I started from scratch with a fresh bike and purchased a wheel with a hub motor on it," Mark explained. "It's a pink ladies' bike that's un-stealable, or at least that's how my wife describes it, but I cherish it a lot. I changed the wheel for this electric wheel and that gave me the ability to connect whatever battery I wanted."

Mark had already been tinkering with vape batteries to create portable power banks and rechargeable lanterns. Having ingeniously powered his iPhone 8 and musical gear with batteries salvaged from discarded disposable vapes he found in the gutter, Mark set his sights on an e-bike.

For the past year, Mark, alongside his art student son who utilised them for a project, has amassed hundreds of spent vapes. "I tapped into my son's collection and raided the lot," he admitted.

He counted around 200 in total. "Different vapes have got different-sized batteries, so they have to be matched."

Mark opted for the Elf Bar batteries due to their robust power, lamenting the environmental impact as he had roughly 100 of these.

Keen to test his "prototype" away from prying eyes, Mark remarked, "you never know what's going to happen". Slipping away unnoticed by neighbours, he embarked on his initial journey to Sevenoaks, several miles distant, on May 22.

"I snuck off and it was amazing, it felt like there was as much power as using one of my actual e-bike batteries," he enthused. The ride felt rejuvenated, like "So I started from scratch with a fresh bike and purchased a wheel with a hub motor on it,".

His trip included a jaunt to Sevenoaks and back, conquering a significant incline. Mark managed to hit the legal UK e-bike speed limit of 15mph.

He attributed his triumph to the sheer number of batteries used, emphasising this as a crucial safety measure to prevent overstraining them. "There's 10 strands of batteries and each strand has got seven batteries, so it's an array of 70 cells, so 70 vapes," he explained.

Mark shared his innovative approach to building a safer e-bike, saying: "I think, because I used nine batteries per strand instead of just the one, it meant that it wasn't putting too much stress on the batteries and they were able to provide power." He also added, "That's the secret to making it safe as well."

Pleased with his initial design, Mark is now working on "stage two" of his project. His next step involves purchasing a proper casing for the batteries to prevent any wires from being exposed. "Eventually the pack of batteries will be enclosed properly so you can't accidentally cause a short circuit," he explained.

Before embarking on the construction of his e-bike, Mark meticulously tested each of the 70 vape batteries in his shed to ensure they were up to the task. By charging and discharging them, he could assess their power capacity and verify their specifications.

"If the cell gets hot you know it's not good, but I haven't had that so far with these vapes, they are pretty good," he commented.

To avoid any risk of overheating, Mark charged the batteries with a low power charger overnight, taking a cautious approach to safety. He mused on the selling points of commercial batteries: "If you buy a commercial battery some of the features that they sell on is, how much power is in it? How quickly does it charge? " He then explained his own strategy: "When you are pushing towards the limit on those, it can fail, so my approach is over spec it, charge it slowly and don't stress the batteries out too much."

Mark concluded with, "So I'm not in a rush."

Looking ahead, Mark is considering the possibility of conducting workshops to teach others how to construct their own e-bikes using recycled vape batteries in a secure manner.

"People are looking at e-bikes and want to get into them, but they're spending a lot of money," he said. "Convenience is king so a lot of people who want an e-bike just want to plug and go but other people might be interested in doing something different.

"So my thinking is, if I can wrap this up as a project and someone is interested in building one themselves, of maybe doing a workshop or something like that. Even if it just helps people understand how an e-bike or a battery works and then someone goes on to buy one and can fix it. Maybe what I've done can help them in some way."

To find out more about Mark's music visit: Facebook.com/mairkmusic.

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