Vanmoof going under??

[davell]

Exclusive: VanMoof explores sale under court protection because it can’t pay bills — The Verge

The company has entered a so-called ‘suspension of payment’ proceeding with a court-assigned administrator helping to lead the company out of debt. All options are on the table.

stocks.apple.com

Cant say I’m surprised. Very abstract designs and too expensive. Anyone on here bought one?

 

[Bonzo Banana]

I'd never buy such a product myself, highly proprietary, environmentally damaging due to short lifespan and being uneconomic to repair fairly quickly. We need to buy bikes that have an easy 5 year life and perhaps last 10-15 years ideally. I wonder how much the founders paid themselves and how many millions they have taken out of the business. It sounds like the proprietary nature of the bike led to poor reliability and high warranty claims which could be a huge factor.

I was looking at used ebikes on ebay and this came up;

Mercedes-Benz "Smart" E-Bike 2014 | Inc. Spare Battery | Needs Electronic Repair | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Mercedes-Benz "Smart" E-Bike 2014 | Inc. Spare Battery | Needs Electronic Repair at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

Starting the auction at £700 for what is a paperweight faulty ebike. It's based around a Bionx hub motor which was poor quality and highly proprietary and what looks like a huge number of other proprietary parts. £700 is enough to buy a decent entry level bicycle and good ebike kit. Bionx went out of business a few years ago with a lot of unhappy customers.

There is no reason why ebikes can't be designed to be easily and cheaply repaired using standard and non-proprietary parts.

We need to move away from high cost throwaway garbage products.

 

[cyclebuddy]

Of greater alarm to me is the linked article about RadPower bikes here pulling out of Europe and the UK entirely from 2024. I'd think there'd be a comparatively much larger number of Rad bike owners being simpler/cheaper bikes. That's still a blow to the owner to lose EU/UK support.

 

[Woosh]

Of greater alarm to me is the linked article about RadPower bikes here pulling out of Europe and the UK entirely from 2024.

RadPower wants to have a large corporate structure but there are lots of factors against them.
Their products are not sophisticated enough to avoid competition from small vendors on amazon and ebay which operate on a much slimmer margin and or better product differentiation.
Their size is also a target for litigations. Product recalls, accidents etc. I can't see where it is going.

 

[Woosh]

Cant say I’m surprised. Very abstract designs and too expensive. Anyone on here bought one?

I am surprised that it lasted as long as it has, probably thanks to covid.

 

[Bonzo Banana]

Of greater alarm to me is the linked article about RadPower bikes here pulling out of Europe and the UK entirely from 2024. I'd think there'd be a comparatively much larger number of Rad bike owners being simpler/cheaper bikes. That's still a blow to the owner to lose EU/UK support.

I don't know much about Radpower bikes but they do look like you can fix them with non-proprietary parts to a degree. I wouldn't have a chance with a Van Moof bike but I reckon I could sort out a RadPower bike if one came my way cheap. I was looking at a Dahon video on youtube the other day and just about every component on the bike they had slapped a Dahon brand sticker on but you could see the parts were actually very generic parts often seen without a brand on. It's a bit like Trek's Bontrager brand, there are no Bontrager factories it's just something they do to make the bike look more specifically a Trek product. The Radpower bikes look like that. Most of it looks generic, maybe its custom controller and display but I suspect the hub motor will be easy to use with another controller no problem if there is an issue. The VanMoof bike in comparison looks very difficult to repair. The time and money trying to fix it could be uneconomic and is it even worth it, such ebikes are low power, low range designs which are more style over substance.

 

[saneagle]

We did our best to warn people against buying such bikes. I like to see innovations, but if you do anything bespoke, you need a proper quality control system. The big electronics and motor companies can pull that off, otherwise it's a long learning process and lots of pain for everyone involved.

 

[Woosh]

I like to see innovations,

what did Van Moof do better than others though?

 

[saneagle]

what did Van Moof do better than others though?

It wasn't better. They did thing differently and added some interesting features. When anybody does anything new, it's only later that we find out if it's better or not.

 

[Woosh]

They did thing differently and added some interesting features.

They used to have a torque sensor then introduced a pedal sensor in later models. They have a 3-speed automatic gearbox and later 2-speed. They have an app. What else?

 

[Nealh]

Some on here will remember the fun we had with smart arse mercedes ebiker who had one those, he never gave up trying to say the smart ebike was the best ever.
Funnily enough like many others disappeared without a trace.

 

[sjpt]

Posted un Cycle UK forum. https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?p=1816544#p1816544

"E-bike company VanMoof has a plan to rise from the grave, and it includes a scooter":
https://electrek.co/2023/12/20/e-bike-c ... a-scooter/

 

[lenny]

 

[peterjd]

At about £1900 this 'scooter' is definitely not for me. I'll stick with my Decathlon e500 'proper' bike at a sale price of £999

 

[AndyBike]

Posted un Cycle UK forum. https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?p=1816544#p1816544

"E-bike company VanMoof has a plan to rise from the grave, and it includes a scooter":
https://electrek.co/2023/12/20/e-bike-c ... a-scooter/

I avoid websites that have the 'accept all' cookie option with no reject all and they want you to work through an extremely long list clicking no to each and every one, then have to do the same for whats laughably called 'legitimate interest'

So got a pic of it ?

Decathlon e500

I've never understood why there is any need to fold a bike down in under 15 seconds. I mean whats the rush ?. They always seem to have that listed as one of the benefits.