A dad has combined 70 disposable vape batteries to convert his “un-stealable pink ladies’ bicycle” into an e-bike capable of reaching speeds of up to 15mph.
Mark Hopgood, 55, a software engineer and musician from Sevenoaks, Kent, came up with the idea earlier in 2024 after his electric bike broke down and he was quoted £1,200 to buy a new one.
The father of two has been collecting hundreds of discarded vapes over the past year with the help of his son Ned, 20, and experimenting with their batteries to power various electrical items including his iPhone and musical equipment.
Mark purchased a motorised wheel and spent weeks testing each one of the 70 batteries in his garden shed to make sure they were compatible before wiring them together and connecting them to his bike.
In May, Mark tested his homemade e-bike on a three-mile stretch to Sevenoaks and is now planning his “stage two” design, which he said will not have so many wires hanging out.
He hopes to share his blueprints with other people and run a workshop for those who are interested in making their own e-bike, but warned it is important to take certain safety precautions so that the batteries do not overheat and catch fire.
“There must be millions of these vapes around, it’s just incredible,” Mark said.
“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 had an e-bike since 2017 which he used on a daily basis to cycle to and from his office in Canary Wharf.
But when his electric bike stopped working in February this year, he started thinking.
“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 said.
“So that sort of spurred me on to finding another way.”
He bought an “ordinary bike”, a seven-speed pink Cannondale Adventure 2, online and decided to convert 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 said.
“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 experimenting with vape batteries to make portable power banks and rechargeable lanterns.
Having successfully managed to charge his iPhone 8 and musical equipment with batteries recovered from disposable vapes collected from the gutter, he turned his attention to an e-bike.
Over the past year, Mark has collected hundreds of used vapes with the help of his son, an art student who was using them for one of his projects.
“I tapped into my son’s collection and raided the lot,” he said.
“There must have been 200 in total.
“Different vapes have got different-sized batteries, so they have to be matched.
“I chose the Elf Bar because that’s got quite a powerful battery and unfortunately (for the environment) I had about 100 of those.”
Mark was hoping to test his “prototype” in private because he said “you never know what’s going to happen”.
After narrowly avoiding being questioned by a neighbour, he set off on his maiden voyage to Sevenoaks, a few miles away, 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,” Mark said.
“It felt like a fresh bike.
“I went up to Sevenoaks and back again, which is quite a big hill.”
He was able to reach a speed of 15mph, the maximum speed an electric bike can travel by law in the UK.
Mark credited his success to using so many batteries and stressed this is a key safety feature that ensures they are not being overworked.
“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 said.
“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.
“That’s the secret to making it safe as well.”
Happy with his working prototype, Mark is in the process of developing “stage two”, in which he plans to buy a proper casing for the batteries, so the wires are not sticking out.
“Eventually the pack of batteries will be enclosed properly so you can’t accidentally cause a short circuit,” he said.
Before building his e-bike Mark tested each of the 70 vape batteries individually in his garden shed to make sure they could hold charge.
By charging them up and draining them, he was able to determine how much power they could hold and confirm they were the right spec.
“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,” Mark said.
As a safety precaution, he used a low power charger overnight to ensure the batteries did not overheat.
“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?
“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.
“So I’m not in a rush.”
Mark is now toying with the idea of running workshops to teach people how to build their own e-bike safely using old vape batteries.
“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.
