We are all by now familiar with the concept of motorised bicycles. You might have seen them sputtering about like labored lawnmowers, and not looking too dissimilar either. They are very loud and clunky and well overdue for an upgrade.

The ‘add-e’ is that upgrade. It is a small, discreet device that can be attached to the bottom bracket section of your bike, where it will push your rear wheel along effortlessly.

The beauty of the add-e is that it can be attached to any bike, with only a short assemble before it is entirely up-and-running. A cool feature of the add-e is that it uses the bottle cage to hold the battery, disguising the battery itself as a bottle of water.

The price for the device ranges between €800 – €1,000, so it’s not exactly a stocking filler. But don’t dismiss it for this reason. It can be an incredibly useful piece of equipment.

The add-e can propel you along at speeds of up to 50kph, generating 600 watts of power. It essentially turns your bicycle into a mini-motorbike with something that is barely visible.

This has the potential to radically change how we think about cycling. It stretches the range of what a bicycle can do and what it can be. It turns a 30-40km commute by bike into a feasible option. With the added advantage of being able to fly pass gridlocked cars as they wonder how you can pedal so inhumanly fast.

The add-e began as a crowd-funded project on indiegogo.com where it reached a funding goal of 251%, coming to a total of €396,625.