Need motorised transport? Why pay a fortune, asks Super Cycles cofounder Simon Clark.

Port Elizabeth-based Super Cycles is the creator of the Bushpig motorised off-road bicycle.

The Bushpig uses a customised weed-eater engine, developed over 25 prototypes to its current commercially viable form, says Clark.

Similar bikes in the US make use of the same category of engine.

However, the Bushpig is the only rack-mounted (behind the saddle) bicycle engine system in the world that incorporates a luggage rack as a functional part of its design, says Clark.

The Bushpig was developed from a road bike version using the same powertrain.

Clark believes an off-road bike will have more traction in the market, owing to the difficulty road cyclists face in South Africa.

To date, Super Cycles has showcased the Bushpig to a number of security and agricultural interests, and the reception “has been fantastic”, he notes.

He says the Bushpig is “robust and well-suited” for rural and off-road use, allowing the bike to address mobility issues in rural areas in an economic and sustainable way.

“We recently rode several of the bikes from Port Elizabeth to Port Alfred, where we donated two Bushpigs to the police for community work.

“We finished the 180 km ride in just over five hours using about 5 ℓ of petrol on each bike.”

The average speed on off-road routes is around 34 km/h, with fuel consumption at 1 ℓ/30 km.

Super Cycles consists of two businesspeople, three retired engineers and three practising engineers, almost all of whom have some motor racing or a motorcycle background.

“The development process started by looking at the motorised bikes available in the market,” explains Clark.

“It soon became apparent that the weed-eater engine was the way to go.

“However, the two leading designs from the US were too expensive and too complicated to support in South Africa.

“This made the brief simple: build a mounting system that was simple, easy and cheap to make, easy to maintain and better than anything else available.”

The bike is currently imported from Taiwan and the engine from China.

“However, we modify the engine for better performance locally,” notes Clark.

“We aim to produce our own locally manufactured bike by the middle of next year.”

Clark says most sales are currently into rural areas, where farmers typically used it as a replacement for quad bikes.

“Our bike is far cheaper, offers equal or better reliability, can be maintained cheaply on site, offers good low-speed performance where some quad bikes may overheat, and it is limited to 35 km/h, which reduces the chance of staff injuring themselves at speed.”

Super Cycles aims to expand from two retail points to 35 retail points across the Eastern Cape by the end of the year, with national coverage the target by the end of next year.

“We have already had a number of export enquiries,” says Clark.

The on-road version costs R8 495, and the off-road Bushpig R9 495.