Eco innovation case study report 1

‘We were intrigued by creating something that could dramatically change urban transport, enabling city dwellers a fast, safe and easy way to navigate their environment’ (Grant Ryan, founder YikeBike)

Yike Bike: Eco-innovation Business Case Study 1 Claire Mortimer & Jonathan King

1. Introduction

This briefing provides a case study of the innovation process of the YikeBike and forms part of an eco-innovation research project undertaken by Landcare Research. The research goal is to identify factors which lead to significant levels of eco-innovation creation and diffusion, within New Zealand. The project also contributes to an international OECD research programme aimed at identifying effective policy for eco-innovation.

The case study outlines the general features of the innovation and its impacts and benefits, the innovation process, factors which enabled or constrained the innovation and overall lessons.

There are five New Zealand case studies in total in this Landcare Research project and all situated in the transport and waste-to-energy sectors. They are: YikeBike, HaloIPT, Waste Solutions, LanzaTech and Solray Energy. The case study reports and subsequent research reports which will identify comparative findings can be accessed at www.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/research_details.asp?Research_Content_ID=282

2. General features

The YikeBike is the smallest, lightest, electric folding bike in the world – the “city foldable bike”. The goal was to make an urban transportation solution that would reduce the need for people living in traffic-congested cities to own or drive their cars. The YikeBike has three key areas of innovation:

1. It is highly portable The YikeBike weighs 10.8 kg (23 pounds), while the next lightest electric folding bike with a similar size wheel (20 inch – to provide a stable smooth ride) is nearly double the

Eco innovation case study report 1

weight and three times bigger. The YikeBike can be folded up in under 20 seconds and can be carried onto public transport and into offices and apartments. There is no bike chain, so no oil will get on the owners’ clothes as they carry it between journeys, making it a practical commuting vehicle. Its portability allows it to be used both by urban residents for getting around the city, and by people commuting into cities, as commuters can travel part of the commute by car or public transport and part by the YikeBike, thus extending its 10k-m range. To create a lightweight fold-up bike, the YikeBike is based on an entirely new bike configuration in which the rider sits upright as opposed to leaning over, drawing inspiration from the penny-farthing bike design.

2. It doesn’t require new electric charging infrastructure The YikeBike can be charged at any normal power point and because of its portability can be easily charged in a high-rise office or an apartment. The YikeBike has a range of 10 km and runs on a lithium phosphate battery with a 40-min recharge.

3. It has unique safety features Safety was a key design consideration. The YikeBike is the first bike in the world with electronic antiskid brakes, which enables the bike to be safely ridden in snow and ice and reduces skidding in an emergency braking scenario. The upright position of the bike rider and built in and always on lights and indicators increase the visibility of the rider and bike even on grey days. The bike is speed limited to 23 km per hour to reduce potential crash impacts.

2.1 Target customers The short-term target customers are early adopters of new and cool technology. This is based on the founder’s experience that early adopters help in testing and refining a new product as well as branding and mainstreaming a new product. They also help fund its development. The first generation YikeBike is designed for the early adopters through its use of optimum technology (e.g., carbon fibre), sleek aesthetic, and branding. The longer term goal is to develop a relatively less expensive YikeBike, primarily for city residents, and develop variations of the YikeBike for different users (e.g., pedal-assisted YikeBikes for those wanting to get exercise as they travel see www.minifarthing.com/site/possible-designs). The early adopters therefore help fund development of a wider market and build social acceptance of the new bike design.

3. Impacts and benefits

At the time of the interview, YikeBike had been in production for less than a year, producing and selling a few hundred models. As discussed above, the company’s intention is eventually to develop a mass-produced model that will be similar in price to a normal bike. If this is achieved the innovation has the potential to become a common choice for personal city transport. The current model sells for NZ$5,046 or €2,872, which is a price deterrent for many potential customers; however, developing a high technology model is part of the deliberate “early adopters” marketing strategy outlined above.

Eco innovation case study report 1

The primary environmental benefit is the reduction in fossil fuel-powered vehicle use. YikeBike has not calculated detailed environmental impact scenarios of providing an electric bike but we summarise a scenario that Segway, which is also an electric personal transport vehicle, provides on its website.

‘The US EPA estimates that there are 900 million trips undertaken each day in the US. Approx 50 % of these are less than five miles long and undertaken by a solo driver. If 10% of the 900 million 3 mile car trips were replaced with an eco-friendly Segway PT there would be 286 million fewer pounds of CO2 emitted every day.’

So far the current design and manufacturing of YikeBike has not focused on reducing the product’s direct and indirect environmental footprint (e.g., through material selection, manufacturing processes, etc.). The company intends to spend more time considering the footprint as YikeBike is developed into a mass-produced model.

In terms of economic benefits, YikeBike offers a low operating cost for personal, short-length transport, costing approximately 6 cents per 10 km in electricity. With growing evidence of declining global oil reserves and rising oil prices, electric- and low-powered transportation is assumed to become more competitive and necessary. While the initial cost of the current model, however, is set at a premium price, a mass-produced version may start to see transport savings to the customer. In terms of the wider economy, some economic benefits would occur once a mass-produced option is developed through job creation and economic stimulus. YikeBikes has already created 15 jobs and a number of sub contracts to firms in New Zealand and internationally. However, it is anticipated that any subsequent mass production would move offshore to be physically located near key suppliers and markets (Asia and Europe). Therefore, while design would likely remain in New Zealand, manufacturing jobs and supply contracts arising from mass manufacturing would be created offshore.

4. Innovation process

4.1 Idea generation

Grant Ryan, a professional inventor, initiated the development of YikeBike in 2005. Grant saw a market opportunity to develop a vehicle that could move someone around a crowded urban environment. When the Segway PT, an electric stand-on vehicle, came out in 2001 Grant was impressed by the engineering but believed he could design a much lighter bike that was less complicated for mass-market production. The Segway PT i2 commuter vehicle weighs 47.7 kg, over four times the weight of the YikeBike.

To identify a value case and key design considerations, Grant and a small team started the ideas generation stage by asking the following questions:

When is walking, cycling or driving less convenient for either short-distance commuting or for commuters to link with public transport? For example, in terms of factors such as speed, effort, parking, lock and leave, area that can be covered?

What are the impacts of limited personal storage space in heavily populated urban areas? Including home and office.

Eco innovation case study report 1

What are the bigger trends in urban living as they relate to personal transport? For example, increasing urbanisation, decreasing personal space, pollution, development of cycle-friendly infrastructure, increasing emphasis on using mass public transport, and hostility to the car.

Source www.minifarthing.com

4.2 Development

The team looked at the history of bike development and found most foldable bikes take the conventional bike design and try to fold them up. They took a step back and looked for an entirely new bike configuration inspired by the penny-farthing design. Using rapid prototyping to trial different configurations, they started with a pedal version and eventually moved to a full electric version because it was smaller, cheaper, and more efficient. The core development was done in-house with specific expertise brought in as required. The team believes this in-house expertise based on rapid prototyping is the basis for its competitive advantage.

Because YikeBike is based upon a radically new bike design, there were numerous elements that could not be bought off the shelf and therefore an amount of R&D was therefore required to adapt existing components or design new ones. For example, the YikeBike wheel rim is without hubs so that it is possible to store the bike’s batteries. This is uncommon in production due to the mechanical cost involved. Therefore R&D was undertaken to develop a design which could be produced economically, while still ensuring that the rim met other design criteria including being robust enough to travel thousands of kilometres.

While there was significant R&D, the YikeBike was based as far as possible on standard engineering, which reduced the risk to product development. For example, the team used an existing motor design developed for radio-controlled aeroplanes and helicopters but with modifications to the shaft and the bearings and a new design for the control system. The team believed the design challenges were solvable, and that it was a matter of how quickly they could solve those challenges, what compromises they would have to make, and how expensive the design would be.

Illustration of radical development of the YikeBike from the conventional bike where the rider leans forward

over handle bars to YikeBike’s the seated up right seated position with side handles. Source

www.minifarthing.com (YikeBike’s licensing company)

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4.3 Testing and demonstration

As previously outlined, the YikeBike was developed through an iterative process of rapid prototyping. The strategy of developing a high performance model for the early adopter market is one stage of the development process. The company is watching the uptake and feedback from early customers closely, in order to identify necessary design modifications for the mass-produced model and model variations. Feedback is obtained mainly from email but also over the phone and in person. The YikeBike can therefore still be seen as in an iterative development stage, and the innovation process should not be seen as a linear series of steps leading to commercialisation but rather that commercialisation at a small scale aimed at early adopters forms part of the development and marketing process .

4.4 Business development and knowledge diffusion

Business development was undertaken in-house. It was Grant Ryan’s fifth start-up business, and the experience, resources, and reputation he had gained from the previous start-ups were critical for the success of YikeBike to date.

‘If this had been my first it almost certainly would have failed and the reason for that is it’s a very peculiar little art starting out technology businesses, particularly from New Zealand where we’re isolated from all those sorts of things’. Grant Ryan

Grant Ryan founded a number of companies including GlobalBrain.net (sold to NBCi), RealContacts, SLI Systems (profitable, fast-growing SaaS search company) and Eurekster (North America Red Herring 100 in 2006). 4.5 Knowledge diffusion The fundamental innovation that will be diffused and picked up by other developers is the radically new bike design. Until the YikeBike, basic bike design has not changed radically over the last 200 years except through optimisation of design features. The website outlines a potential for different variations based on the YikeBike and the company expects and hopes that other companies will adopt the basic new design. They believe that rather than creating competition, similar design adoption will help socialise the new bike design, which creates a scale effect leading to mass market acceptance.

5. Factors that influence the innovation

5.1 Market conditions

The selection of a city bike as the innovation for the founder to develop, over a list of other potential innovation projects, was based on global future trends research, market research, and a decision to create a product that was inherently visible to the public.

Grant Ryan undertook future trends research identifying that:

Urbanisation will continue to grow (currently over 50% of the human population now live in an urban settlement, with significant increases predicted)

Eco innovation case study report 1

Cities internationally were facing increasing congestion issues, with associated air pollutants and carbon emissions.

This trends research identified the need to move people efficiently around a congested city using a transport device that was portable and had a small environmental footprint (the “city foldable bike”). Grant also identifies timing as one element of the YikeBike success to date. His market research identified that electric bikes were a growing and increasingly significant market, and then fortuitously the salience of climate change issues grew over the period of product development, thus increasing market and media interest in electric vehicles.

As well as having enabling market conditions, the YikeBike had a strong self-marketing aspect. One of the reasons a bike was initially selected to develop was because it was ‘inherently social and visible’ – people see other people carrying and riding it around a city and it had attracted wide media coverage and public visibility. Therefore part of the initial criteria for selecting a bike to innovate rather than a less visible product was it would market itself without large advertising costs. YikeBike has won a number of international and national awards that have supported the market strategy focussed on early adopters (http://www.yikebike.com/design/awards )

YikeBike was selected as one of the 50 best inventions of the year 2010 by Time Magazine. Source

www.yikebike.com

Eco innovation case study report 1

Founder Grant Ryan demonstrating the YikeBike out on the streets. Source www.yikebike.com

Key target markets are city residents in Europe and North America and eventually Asia. Due to its small population base, the local New Zealand market will be only a secondary market. marketing, initially trialling online sales, customer surveys showed people wanted to touch and test the bike first, so the company are in the process of moving to working with distributors. Over 2500 people internationally have contacted YikeBike wanting to distribute the bikes; the company is currently working through a selection process. The company believes they have developed a ‘deep understanding’ of their competitors, and hold an ongoing matrix of understanding of where their product fits within a wider competitive market of normal and folding bikes as well as electric bikes. The company continuously review all bike design competitions, and have assessed thousands of bike designs to ensure they have considered the latest technical and market innovations. They believe they can hold their specialised space for a while but also believe, based on past experience, that having other companies copy their design will increase sales, as the new upright seating arrangement will become more socially accepted. 5.2 Organisation and network

The company was deliberately set up on the YikeBike development. Grant Ryan’s intention was to have a small team of half a dozen people focussing solely on the YikeBike development, as he believes that intense focus can enable the innovation process to be faster and more effective than if it was undertaken within a big company. Grant quotes the book ‘The Innovator’s Dilemma’ (C M Christensen 2003), which describes the comparative strength of small start-up companies who focus on one innovation compared with large successful companies whose energies are spread over different developments and running large organisations.

Eco innovation case study report 1

The company brought in external specialist expertise when required, but most of the work was undertaken internally. Internal expertise was seen as the company’s core competency as it supported the processes of rapid prototyping, assessment of design to production processes, and design responses to initial customer feedback.

In terms of organisational structure there are three separate companies relating to the YikeBike innovation: Project Garlic, YikeBike, and Mini Farthing. Project Garlic is the parent company that developed YikeBike, so named as to keep the innovation below the radar during development. YikeBike is the trading company that buys and sells YikeBikes, and Mini Farthing undertakes IP licensing.

Networks have been a critical component of the business, enabling Grant Ryan to access the right people for his business development. Grant describes social networks as an ‘an extremely powerful filtering mechanism’ used by very busy people, who businesses, like his, need to engage with and prioritise who they work with.

Grant Ryan is part of an informal social network of entrepreneurs in New Zealand who get together to support one another on different aspects of innovation. ‘Typically we don’t compete with each other because we’ve all got our little niches where we do things, but we all just kind of egg each other on and share war stories.’ It’s an invitation-only network but because New Zealand is small Grant believes it’s easy for newcomers to access both the network and the people who have specific expertise to help the innovation process. This easy access to networks and individual expertise for informal discussions appears to be a benefit of New Zealand’s small and relatively informal business culture.

The New Zealand Government’s NZ Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) runs business network forums, but these were not seen as important to the development of YikeBike. However, Grant Ryan has found the more generic information and connections useful which NZTE can supply on business practice and business networks in the countries in which YikeBike will be marketed.

5.3 Knowledge and human resources

Core knowledge, skills, and competencies In-house staff resources and training were the most critical source of knowledge and skills. Grant Ryan already had a strong track record of start-up businesses and developing and taking innovations to market. Without the understanding of the complexity of the innovation process and the expertise he could draw on from his existing networks, he believes the YikeBike would have failed.

The company had no difficulty finding technical expertise within New Zealand, and believes that New Zealand’s education system provided the technical skills required, for example, the person who undertook the engineering development had just completed university in New Zealand. However, it was felt that the New Zealand business sector in general lacks skills in commercialising products and services.

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This led to a discussion on whether you can train people to be innovators and entrepreneurs. Grant Ryan feels innovation (and business in general) needs to be driven by creativity and a passion to produce something world leading, ‘in order to export from New Zealand, you have to do something better than anyone else in the world and that’s actually a daunting thing’.

Taking on that challenge may in part, he feels, be an attitude to life as opposed to something you can teach people. Grant Ryan’s father was an inventor and entrepreneur and family experience may prepare people for what they believe is possible in life. Another factor that appears to have contributed to YikeBike design success was a design team who were not traditional bike designers and were not working within a large bike company. Being ‘outsiders,’ they brought a range of alternative experiences and expertise to the design solution. This enabled them to look at the problem from a different angle and break from the conventions of traditional bike design.

Knowledge and skill sources 1–5

In-house resources and training 1

Recruiting experts

University recruiting 0

Foreign recruiting 0

Domestic contracting 2

Foreign contracting 0

University partnerships 0

Company partnerships 2

Government/non-profit partnerships 2 in relation to financing

International partnerships

Mergers & acquisitions

Establishment of foreign facilities

Other (please specify)

5.4 Finance and physical resources

Grant Ryan funded the first four years of development from a combination of capital created from previous business ventures and of venture capital and angel investment. He had created a strong track record from his previous business and this made it easier for him to attract external investors, all of whom had invested in his previous companies In terms of government schemes, YikeBike received a Technology Business Grant (TBG), which Grant Ryan credits as being extremely important in supporting the R&D stage of business innovations. The TBG Technology Development Grant, administered by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MSI), reimburses 500% of eligible expenditure on a business’s R&D programme. YikeBike also received funding from a venture firm that has

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investment from the Venture Investment Fund Board, which receives approximately $200 million from the Government. New Zealand has a relatively small pool of venture capital and angel funding sources, making it difficult for New Zealand businesses to access funding. Businesses can therefore struggle to find a funder whose portfolio is relevant to their specific area. Grant Ryan’s strategy when he first undertook start-up business was to start with innovations that required relatively small amounts of capital. As his track record grew he was able to access more capital and undertake more capital-intensive projects. This relates back to 4.2 and the need to develop strong networks that include people and organisations involved in business funding.

Funding Sources 1–5

In-house revenues 3

Parent firm

Conventional bank loans

Angel investors 2

Venture capital firms 2

Private equity

Initial public offering (IPO) on a stock or secondary market

National government

Loan

Grant TBG

Regional government

Loan

Grant

City/local Government

International public programmes (e.g. EU framework programme)

Government insurance programme

Private research grant

Supportive customers 2

Other – resource from past businesses 1

(1 = the most important; 5 = the least important).

5.5 Government policies and programmes

In terms of funding, as mentioned previously the YikeBike received government funding from two sources: The Technology Business Grant for R&D and the Venture Investment Fund, which receives government investment for business development. Both funds are provided at a national level; neither is directly targeted to supporting eco innovation.

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In terms of market intelligence, NZTE provided general information on doing business in a particular country/region and was able to provide business contacts in one country. Although this was helpful, the company ultimately relied more on its own market intelligence, as it needed to be very product specific.

New Zealand has very enabling regulations for company start ups so there were no legislative barriers in terms of creating the three companies, Project Garlic, YikeBike Limited and Mini Farthing, required to take YikeBike forward.

Bike safety regulations have negatively impacted on sales. While the YikeBike focussed on safety as a key design feature, safety regulations in many countries are based on conventional bike technology. For example, the YikeBike can’t pass some bike safety tests because those tests involve spraying water on the brake pads to test how they perform in wet weather. As the YikeBike doesn’t have brake pads these safety tests cannot be carried out. Some countries have changed laws to be more permissive and practical about new electric bike technologies rather than being overly prescriptive, which usually favours only existing designs. For example, while Belgium, Austria and Oregon, USA, allow electric vehicles that weigh less than 20 kg and run less than 25 km an hour to use bike lanes, current EU regulations do not, and a proposed law change will take about four years to pass. While customers of many countries (such as New Zealand) do not appear to mind ‘illegal bikes’, it has affected sales in countries where customers are concerned that lack of official certification might mean their bikes are taken from them; this is particularly the case for the UK market. Regulation typically follows technological innovation but prescriptive regulation can slow the initial market uptake of those technologies.

Potentially YikeBike sales could be accelerated through government-supported bike schemes. There are no such schemes in New Zealand but internationally government schemes promote bike use, e.g., Grant Ryan referred to the UK Cycle to Work Scheme, which allows employers to loan cycles and cyclists’ safety equipment to employees as a tax-free benefit.

5.6 Tools and measurement

The environmental benefits are expected to be delivered from reducing fossil-fuelled vehicle use. The environmental benefits of riding an electric bike as opposed to driving a car have been considered, but only at a high level. The team have not yet examined the cradle to grave footprint of an electric bike. 5.7 Intellectual property rights (IPR)

YikeBike has design marks and trademarks around the world (USA, most of Europe, Japan, China, Singapore, Brazil, Russia, India, Australia), and patent applications still to be granted around the world. The company believes in creating a mix of IPR protection, from the quick and inexpensive approaches for early protection of the innovation to the more expensive process of patents. They believe strong IP protection is a critical foundation for innovation as it protects companies’ intellectual and financial investments. The people who created the

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patents for YikeBike have worked with Grant Ryan in the past and offered to undertake the work in exchange for becoming foundation shareholders of the company. The company is not concerned about the counterfeit market, which they believe is only 10–15% of the total market, and, as outlined previously, they see the adoption of their bike design by other companies as a means to gain greater market acceptance for the upright and electric YikeBike design. 5.8 Value chains and production networks

Value chains and production networks are not yet relevant as YikeBike has not reached mass production. When it does its production will be sited near key suppliers and markets off shore. Production is currently based in NZ, servicing is still centralised, and replacement parts are couriered to customers. To facilitate this, the bike is designed to be taken apart easily when components need replacing.

5.9 Enabling technologies and infrastructure

YikeBike was not enabled by any new breakthrough technology. The YikeBike is purposely designed for existing transport and charging infrastructure. For example, it plugs into a normal power point and as it can be easily carried it has access to multiple power points during any owner’s daily life. The 20-cm wheel is designed to handle normal urban roads and potholes. The dominance of cars on roads and the safety and air pollution issues this raises are barriers for people to bike more. Although more dedicated bike lanes and less traffic would be likely to encourage more people to bike, the current infrastructure does not physically prevent them from biking.

6. Overall lessons

6.1 Drivers and success factors

One of the key success factors appears to have been Grant Ryan’s previous experience of developing successful innovations as this has provided him with knowledge of the complexity and pitfalls involved and the track record and networks needed to obtain finance and support.

While he had a long list of potential ideas, he selected the city foldable bike idea because his research identified a market opportunity and because he had the potential, with his existing resources and networks, to design and commercialise the innovation successfully. To enlarge on the latter, the investment size of the project was carefully selected in order not to overstretch the investment capacity of the company. For example, Grant Ryan may have had an alternative market opportunity, and the ability to form a skilled team to design it, but if it was far more capital intensive, he would have lacked the capital for successful implementation. Grant has taken a stepping stone approach across his innovations: as he builds his reputation and track record he has been able to increase the subsequent capital investment of each innovation.

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Developing a small team who did not come from bike design backgrounds and who were able to focus on one project, and using a lot of research and rapid prototyping was seen as critical to the YikeBike’s design success.

6.2 Barriers

One of the greatest barriers, particularly in a small country like New Zealand, is raising capital. While YikeBike was able to raise funding as a result of Grant’s personal track record of innovation, other eco-innovations that require significant capital and entrepreneurs without any track record might struggle to find financing in New Zealand.

6.3 Future support

Policy Instruments 1–5

Regulations on harmful substances and activities

Eco-tax, carbon tax 4

Cap and trade scheme

Removal of harmful subsidies (e.g. fossil fuel subsidies)

R&D funding and support 1

Business development funding and support 2

Support for testing and demonstrations

Standardisation of technical elements

Performance standards, labelling, certification

Support for networks, partnerships and matchmaking

Public procurement

Consumer subsidies and pricing

Support for technology transfer

Information brokering and advisory services

Education and training

Provision of enabling infrastructures

Foresight, roadmapping, scenario development

Other (Please specify)

6.4 Future plans

YikeBike is still essentially in the development stage with their first set of customers testing the bike for them. The company had a long list of improvements to make and at the same time, the major step is to mass-produce the YikeBike. This will require stripping the cost out, and part of this will likely mean moving production off shore and closer to suppliers and markets. Setting up offshore will create a new set of challenges and problems to solve.

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6.5 What advice would you give to other eco-innovators to enable their success? ‘I guess just understand the process as much as possible so you go into it with open eyes and expectations and finding good people to work with, because that’s the other thing that I’ve been reasonably good at, we’ve got a really good team. The best bits of advice I ever had when I started off was just get on the phone to some people and ask them stuff and if they don’t know get them to suggest other people to ask. I had so many senior people who will just give you half an hour of their time...but then New Zealand is very small, and...you can almost talk to anyone in New Zealand.’ Grant Ryan

7. Final observations

Grant Ryan takes a strategic and highly pragmatic approach. The city foldable bike was selected both because of its market potential and because its development was within the capital investment capacity of the company. YikeBike is designed to fit within the existing built infrastructure of most cities, although if cities develop more effective bike infrastructure, its appeal to city residents is likely to grow. The initial concept behind YikeBike was to get someone easily around a congested city rather than creating a green vehicle.

YikeBike has been strategically marketed to early adopters of ‘cool’ technology (the Apple and Porsche strategy) as opposed to the ‘green bike market’. These early adopters help build market acceptance of a radically different bike design. This raises interesting questions about strategies in marketing eco-innovations. For example, when are eco-innovations best marketed to “green market segments” and when are they best marketed as general life solutions to other market segments? However, for system level innovation change, it seems logical that innovations eventually need to move beyond green niche markets either through the marketing development of the original company or through their eventual competitors.

YikeBike was developed using a small team from diverse backgrounds rather than a team within a large bike manufacturing company. They used a process of rapid prototyping to continuously design and test the YikeBike and they contribute these two factors to their ability to radically redesign the basic bike structure. It would be interesting to see if there was any evidence within the other eco innovation resaerch to suggest that diversity of backgrounds or ‘outsiders to a sector’ has helped innovators find significantly different ways of addressing problems or fulfilling desired societal functions. Lastly, the experience, passion, and track record of YikeBike’s founder, Grant Ryan, coupled with his belief that his team could create a world leading design, have created the foundation for YikeBike’s success to date.

8. Company details

Parent company – Project Garlic Limited; Trading company – YikeBike Limited; Licensing company – Mini Farthing.

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Ownership: Private company No. of employees/staff members (full-time equivalent): 15 Annual net sales/income (2009 in US$): YikeBike has not yet been trading for a full year A wide range of background and marketing material, can be found at the following websites

http://www.yikebike.com/ http://www.minifarthing.com/

9. Research Contact Claire Mortimer Landcare Research Private Bag 92170, Auckland Phone 207 292 0006 mortimerc@landcareresearch.co.nz Jonathan King Landcare Research PO Box 40, Lincoln 7640. kingj@landcareresearch.co.nz © Landcare Research 2011