I hadn’t ever looked at VanMoof’s website, and I was only vaguely aware of them. As soon as I went to their website and I saw them advertising that their bikes receive “over the air updates,” I suddenly understood why they are going bankrupt.

Their bikes look really nice, and who knows? Maybe they’re nice to ride, too. I’ll just say they’re not for me.

Yeesh. I got the yips when I was about to buy one some years back, precisely because they’d stopped selling basic bikes without app unlocks and alarms and stuff, as I didn’t want the thing to become obsolete or stop working entirely. Glad I did!

I bought a gazelle instead which has been bomb-proof and has standard parts anyway.

Not surprised. They always seemed really expensive. Like, I know they’re gonna be nicer than a cheap Rad Power, but they’re also more than the e-bikes offered by traditional bike companies. Especially important when a lot of local bike shops won’t repair electronic things on brands they don’t sell.

Also, lol, their website still just had rendered images of the bikes. Having seen them in person, yes, they look nice. A lot nicer than a lot of other e-bikes, but like, there’s nothing that feels more like just backing something on kickstarter than a lack of actual photos of your bikes.

I have one of these, well, the older S2 which I got for half the price before they began selling the S3, it’s not fully connected (does not require a phone/connection to function), it’s been nice and reliable for the 3 years and 6000 kilometers I’ve ridden with it. Now I’m still concerned about parts availability if the company goes under…