About.

In 2011, Karsten Bettin built the first prototype of a bicycle that is ridden entirely while standing, using an old children's bike. He rode it hundreds of times around the block until he made up his mind: He quit his engineering job to turn this idea into a production-ready bike. The articulated saddle construction for the upright sitting position, which he developed over countless nights, is still the core of the concept today – and is patented worldwide.

How it became a TV audience favorite and a folding bike on all continents is something we'll tell you further down in our storyline.

In 2026, Karsten, together with his son Till and a new investor, brought his patented folding principle into a new company: upride®. The same construction, the same minds, the same ambition – but with fresh capital and the clear mission to further develop the world's most compact folding bike. Till now leads upride® as managing director, and in the assembly facility in Hanover, colleagues who have been familiar with folding bike craftsmanship for years are working. The company headquarters and flagship store are in Berlin.

This means: upride® is not a start-up that is just trying out whether its product works. It is the consistent further development of a 15-year-old, patented, and thousands of times proven concept – now with a new name and fresh impetus.

We want you to be able to decide freely how you get from A to B – without getting stuck in traffic and without relying on a bulky bicycle that doesn't fit on any train, bus, or in any trunk. Only a hand luggage-sized bike can truly be combined with any mode of transport and taken anywhere without bothering anyone in the aisle. That's exactly what drives us: mobility that is as fast and flexible as a car, but quieter, cheaper, and more sustainable.

Because one thing always applies to us: the smaller a bike, the more spontaneously you can travel with it. Other folding bikes require a bicycle ticket, a reservation, or you have to plan your train connection around peak hours. With upride®, all of that is eliminated because it counts as luggage, not as a bicycle. You spontaneously decide in the morning whether to take it with you – not weeks in advance on a booking screen.

It took over ten years of development and countless long-term stress tests before the folding principle behind upride® was ready for series production. The frame is made of high-strength stainless steel and aluminium, manufactured with particularly tight production tolerances; the joints have additional wear protection so that they function reliably even after thousands of folding operations. A finished bike consists of around 350 individual parts from 35 suppliers, which are assembled in up to five processing steps – precision work that is not visible on the bike, but can be felt every day.

The upride® features a redesigned frame that is now significantly more robust, enabling it to support a total weight of up to 120 kg - considerably more than is usual for compact folding bikes. The saddle is a completely new design: noticeably more comfortable and offering significantly greater riding safety, particularly for those trying out this upright riding position for the first time. An expander cord holds the saddle in the centre of the frame and stabilises the rocking motion - whilst retaining the ergonomic benefits of the adjustable seating position that have characterised the design for the past 15 years.

upride® is tested according to DIN EN ISO 4210, the European safety standard for bicycles. We provide 7-Year Frame Warranty on this, in addition to the statutory warranty of 2 years on the entire bike. And because a good bike should accompany you for a long time, we ensure that spare parts for your upride® will still be available in a few years.

A folding bike must be experienced, not just looked at. That's why, as a customer from the EU, you can test ride upride® for 30 days at home – in everyday life, on your commute, on the train, wherever it's meant to prove itself. If it doesn't suit you, simply send it back.

upride® is the world's first folding bike that can be shipped folded in a standard package – via DHL in our case. No forwarding expenses, no bulky special packaging, no extra costs that other folding bike manufacturers have to charge.

We are a small team – and that is precisely our advantage. When you write to us, you're not speaking with an anonymous call center, but with people who know your bike and genuinely want to solve your problem. No working through standard responses, but an open ear for what you need.

Other folding bike manufacturers sell you a folding diagram. upride® sells you a globally patented design principle that has proven itself over 15 years with thousands of riders, DIN-tested safety and 7-Year Frame Warranty – built by the same minds that invented it. A bike that can withstand more than most other compact folding bikes, which you can test at home risk-free for 30 days, which is the only one of its kind to be delivered to you by standard parcel, and for which, if in doubt, someone will answer the phone who really knows it.