Van poof! Dutch e-bike maker VanMoof goes bankrupt, leaving riders stranded
(www.npr.org)
from stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to technology@lemmy.world on 23 Aug 2023 10:45
https://kbin.social/m/technology@lemmy.world/t/372031
from stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to technology@lemmy.world on 23 Aug 2023 10:45
https://kbin.social/m/technology@lemmy.world/t/372031
The sophisticated bicycle has attracted fans in Europe and the U.S., but repairs under warranty have bled the company of money.
threaded - newest
This is the best summary I could come up with:
But the brand, considered by many bicyclists the Tesla of e-bikes, has gone bankrupt; its cofounders are in talks with outside groups to revive the failed company.
Rueterkemp bought his VanMoof nine months ago for around $4,000, and he’s ridden it nearly every day since, frequently pressing the bike’s “boost” button to pass fellow commuters on his way to his startup in downtown Amsterdam.
Hartogs says VanMoof’s creators fancied their company to be like Apple — creating unique products that would spawn its own ecosystem — but Hartogs says the company ran out of money because, unlike Apple’s products, VanMoof’s specialized bikes often broke down, and their maintenance shops and generous warranty policies couldn’t keep up.
With VanMoof no longer paying him to fix bikes under warranty, Tamor Hartogs is now left negotiating complicated repairs with individual customers.
He’s also been reduced to taking out the company’s patented cylindrical batteries from VanMoof bike frames by carefully breaking them apart and installing new internal components.
When asked for comment, VanMoof’s global head of communications replied by email: “I’m afraid I can’t make anyone available at the moment — seeing that we’re all fired except for the founders.”
The original article contains 696 words, the summary contains 196 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Glad that my bike is from a traditional bike manufacturer.
Also, how do they go bankrupt during bike hype times like these, lmao
A little tutorial for you:
It helps if the people in charge are artists whom just want to create something unique, without too much thought on all the intricacies of running a company in real life.
Also exclusively using custom-made parts instead of using off-the-shelf parts that have proven themselves time and again, is a great way to not be able to leverage the costs and reliability benefits of mass production.
So now that you’ve ended up with the situation of high operating costs, you also end up with a lot of issues due to your fancy custom designed components breaking down within warranty. And it gets even better: because regular bikeshops cannot handle warranty cases, as they do not have the necessary training or components, you need a large number of in-house mechanics that only cost you money instead of helping you earn it!
They wanted to be like Apple and have a closed, proprietary system, but seemed to forget that when you do that, you’ve also got to charge Apple prices to cover all those kind of costs.
Only they did charge Apple prices. Their latest model cost about €3500, which (for Dutch standards at least) is insane for an electric city bike.
It’s insane for a shitty vanmoof. My Batavus e-bike was around that price but it’s a much nicer bike than any vanmoof.
Bad planning.
Their core market was always the Netherlands. That market is absolutely saturated with bikes. There are more bikes than people in NL. It’s not like the US where it’s a relatively novel fenomenom with lots of growth opportunities for new markets.
I’m glad Aventon buys off-the-shelf components for their bikes. I’ve already swapped out my chainring for a much larger oval ring. Couldn’t do that if it was built on proprietary parts.
…
Assuming the boost was related to the frequent bike breakdowns, why did they include a boost feature if the electronics couldn’t handle it 😒 at least the company faithfully repaired them until the money dried up though!
"How much current is this power MOSFET rated for? 200 amps? Okay, we'll do 195 continuous."
That leaves 5 amps to account for surges. Surges usually stay under 102.5%, right?
Come on, if we solder it to a ground plane we have such good cooling it will easily conduct 250A. And make sure to toss that gate driver from there, they’re expensive
Well there we go, nothing to add that.
Good riddance
IToddlers btfod
Yep, this was a well known scheme. They tried to be this hip and overpriced designer brand that people flock to for the name, with a bunch of proprietary parts that requires their own service centers to maintain them. Complete garbage tier imo. One of the nice things about bicycles is that they're so piss easy to maintain by yourself even. The majority of it doesn't even require special tools and it is a fun experience to learn too. Imagine if brands like this became the norm and suddenly you could barely find bikes where you could do that? You'd always have to pay up to some corporate entity instead. Definitely good riddance.
And the most fashionable style where I’m from is the fixie, whose fans specifically value the mechanical simplicity (no derailleur!).
Granted, there’s a big untapped market of people who have absolutely no interest in maintaining or understanding their mode of transport, and have a consumerist/maximalist philosophy. There are also lots of people who treat bikes as disposable, as evidenced by the huge number of abandoned and rusted bikes you can see in any college town. So I see why someone might think that’s a path to success.
For me personally, I do not want a computer in my bike. I want every bit of technology — electronic or mechanical — to earn its place. Because complexity comes at a cost. It means more time, energy, and money spent maintaining it. My derailleurs easily add enough value (for me personally) to justify the added complexity. Disc brakes, honestly, don’t. A built-in computer? Helllllll no.
I personally like slack 1x trail hardtails. It's such a cool mix of versatility.
I prefer disk brakes though. Throwing away entire wheels is so idiotically wasteful and if you don't like hydraulic brakes then there's also cable disc brakes for that.
If I rode hard trails I’m sure I’d see more value in disc brakes. I’ve never worn out a rim in my life. I’m currently running low-end mechanical disc brakes and I find them to be much more trouble than they’re worth compared to my old bargain-basement rim brakes.
I’m curious about hydraulic brakes but I fear the maintenance cost (in time and hassle as well as money) will be too high. Kind of a nonissue for me at the moment, since I won’t likely buy a new bike for many more years.
I guess it also depends on your environment. For me even my entire city is super hilly. A fixie and rim brakes sound like hell for that, unless you have literal Hercules legs.
Servicing hydraulic brakes isn't actually as bad as it might seem at first glance, but of course there's a little more to it than a simple cable pull.
Yeah, I’ve watched some YouTube videos (shoutout to Syd Fixes Bikes!) and it seems like bleeding isn’t overly difficult if you know what you’re doing. I still worry about on-the-road maintenance, though.
Park Tools also has easily one of the best and most extensive bike maintenance playlists on Youtube.
Bikes are mostly easy to maintain but there are some things like adjusting the spokes or the derailleur that a shop will get done much faster.
I don’t agree that much about the tools, unless you consider Allen keys to be a normal tool and you exclude the drivetrain or the headset, which need all kinds of specialized ones. Brakes can also need some less common stuff.
Setting your derailleur is incredibly easy actually and a matter of a few minutes of work even if you have never done it before. You can check the Park Tools video about it if you want to see for yourself. And yes, I consider allen keys to be a normal tool. A lot of derailleurs don't even use them though.
I absolutely consider Allen keys a normal tool. One of the absolute must haves for any household.
What do you guys use them for? I have never seen hex screws on anything other than Ikea furniture and bicycles.
3D printers, furniture, sim racing setup, camera gear, electronics.
Seriously, a set of allan keys and some torx bits are basic tools.
Allan keys (hex wrenches) are absolutely a normal tool, heck, if you've bought IKEA furniture, you may even have one already!
One won’t cut it, you need one of every size.
Not really. About 3 sizes are enough for maintenance and most basic repairs.
Yeah so you get one of these thingies that has like 20 in different sizes. Costs like €5.
Heh, viewing this from the UK that headline would mean something totally different…
Is it a drug reference? It is almost always is a drug (or sex) reference.
Haha, its not in this instance. “Poof” is an outdated way of saying “Gay man”
LOL wow, never would have guessed that.
For such a small ebike maker, there sure are a whole ton of stories about them posted here!
Glad I bought a RadRunner instead. Even now when they’ve left the European market (why are e-bike companies so poor at running their business?) I can still get parts from wherever as it’s a pretty modular and tweakable system.
Fairly expensive in my country. I see them also fairly often outside but not too many people can afford it.
They cost, cca 2-3x monthly salary, for which you may get some A to B car or better, which most people do.
About 1 month salary here. Even less when they had a sale so it was a no brainier for me and my gf since we live and work in the city. Sold my car years ago. More conviniet and cheaper to just rent in the rare cases we need one.
I think it’s time for products to disclose whether they can function or not without the cloud and/or a subscription.
So close to to unauthorized bread.