151–160 of 224 posts
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e-bike with alarm and all other features like apple find my? This is about the VanMoof price, so you have to compare with bikes that bring in the same set of features.
If the features are nearly useless, like for instance an electric motor, then we can simply assign a very low weight to them when comparing.
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e-bike with alarm and all other features like apple find my? This is about the VanMoof price, so you have to compare with bikes that bring in the same set of features.
If the features are nearly useless, like for instance an electric motor, then we can simply assign a very low weight to them when comparing.
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What did Van Moof make, exactly? Do you think they were normal bikes? They made expensive e-bikes with theft recovery features. They have features that make it possible to trace and locate them, and Van Moof would actually do this. For people who spend €3-4k on an easily stolen object that the police won't care about, that's a unique selling point.
Note that when they first came out, they were actually pretty affordable; since then, competition and mass production spun up and you can get an e-bike for <€1K now, and they'll be less custom made, more generally available parts too. The brand's USP then became that they look and are pretty unique, which is cool on one hand, but they weren't able to make it financially viable. Probably because they relied on VC mone…
What are the decent, mass market brands???
I'm in Europe, I don't want to buy a Mercedes S Class. Who sells the Volkswagen Golf of electric bikes? I just want decent build quality, decent comfort, decent features, good repairability and easy maintenance.
The electric bike market seems immature to me. I want 20-30 big bike brands that I can compare, just like the car brands here, for example:
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There is a lot of bikes in Amsterdam in general. Van Moof just stands out because of their 1 marketing, 2 annoying signature noise whenever people bump into them, 3 loud owners that general use it as a status symbol and 4 joke status due to national Dutch publications writing about all the shortcomings of owning this bike. I live in Groningen, a Dutch city that is even more suited for bikes, and I rarely spot any Van…
If you rent a swapfiets for 8 years, you have owned a shitty 100€-bicycle for 8 years for the price of 1920€. I can buy a shitty bike for 100€ every year and still be less than half as expensive than swapfiets. Their business model are people who are unwilling to do and/or learn basic maintenance on their bikes.
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They are expensive for what is essentially a commuter bike. I think they simply chose a wrong strategy, because if you have a cheap(ish) bike and a good U-lock, you can leave it anywhere without much stress. It will most probably not be stolen (because the value of the bike is low), and if it does get stolen, then it is cheap to replace - you can buy at least 5 commuter bikes for the price of a fancy one. In fact, in…
How do you secure the battery with ulock? Or are there bikes with non-replaceble batteries? How do you charge them?
Wow - I was really looking forward to the VanMoof V. Shame to see them struggling financially. It was supposed to be delivered in December 2022. But it was eventually pushed back to end of this year (2023). Contemplating canceling my pre-order ($20-30?) now.
They’re almost bankrupt.. they filed for “uitstel van betaling” yesterday or Wednesday
At least that’s what I always understood about it. Not sure if that’s “chapter 11” or somethings else
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What is local for you? In Amsterdam a 6 minute waiting time is more common if you have a regular bike.
Not OP, but I live in Munich and have heard of both six-week and one-day waiting times this summer. It depends on part availability. One day is common, six weeks not unheard of. A friend waited almost that long when two strange and unusual screws had to be replaced, the wrong ones arrived from the manufacturer, etc. The quick routine procedures failed her, the result was slow. Just from what I hear, it seems that the…
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They wouldn't be expensive for that price if they used quality parts and assembled them well (I don't think VanMoof offered a good deal because those crucial aspects were lacking). The market for a quick city e-bike is a bit different than the one for a throwaway commuter bike. People pay for being faster and enjoying the ride. Accordingly, I would make sure such a bike is insured against theft and use a quality lock…
Having a non-removable battery is a big mistake IMHO, because that's a not insignificant chunk of the value of the bike. Also, it's just a normal e-bike, limited to 25kmh, I wouldn't call that "quick" :) If you want a real quick commuter then get one with a 45kmh limit, that is the point when it kind of stops being a bike and turns into a vehicle. But I think the target market is different in this case, I wouldn't le…
The actual cut off for the assistance is typically set to 27.5 km/h, because regulations allow for 10% of tolerance... Then, depending on transmission ratios, it can be quite comfortable to ride at ~30 km/h. The acceleration boost at lower speeds is still super useful.
Of course, VanMoof's and Cowboy's original spiel was that you could easily disable the limit in software.
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That’s a common waiting time at my local bike shops to be honest. The difference is that you can do most stuff on a normal bike yourself with off the shelf parts (supply chain woes permitting).
What is local for you? In Amsterdam a 6 minute waiting time is more common if you have a regular bike.
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What did Van Moof make, exactly? Do you think they were normal bikes? They made expensive e-bikes with theft recovery features. They have features that make it possible to trace and locate them, and Van Moof would actually do this. For people who spend €3-4k on an easily stolen object that the police won't care about, that's a unique selling point.
An AirTag is $30. So yeah, what did they make?