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VanMoof declares bankruptcy

Tuesday, 18 July 2023

VanMoof — the independent e-bike maker that once bragged about being the “most funded e-bike company in the world” — has been declared bankrupt in the Netherlands.

This is disappointing but, to me, not surprising. In February 2017 I spent £2863 on a VanMoof Electrified S. It was (and is) a significant amount of money to spend on a bicycle, even an electric one. I bought it because it looks great and reviews were calling it 'the best pedal-assisted electric bike available'. I had recently moved a new house in a considerably hillier area and had found I wasn't riding my trusty Genesis Croix De Fer 10 as much.

Yes, it was expensive, but I was eagerly looking forward to the arrival of my new electric assisted bicycle. However within a month I had sent it back to VanMoof.

There were a number of problems. Firstly, the bike used a hub motor in the front wheel. But when you ride a bike, the majority of your weight is over the back wheel making traction a bit of an issue. Especially in Scotland where weather isn't always perfect.

Secondly the software controlling the bike crashed numerous times. There were a number of different software bugs I experienced. The bike had a lock which was managed from an app on a smartphone. To use the bike, you had to unlock the bike and then turn on the motor. At times, the app wouldn't connect to the remote servers meaning I couldn't unlock the bike or turn it on. At other times bugs just turned the bike off and wouldn't let it turn on again. All bugs were resolved by plugging it into power and resetting it, but that's not ideal if you're out on a ride and far from home.

I was promised over the air updates were coming which would solve my problems.

However before the software fix arrived, the software crashed again, this time killing all power to the hub motor. And unfortunately I was cycling at a reasonable speed on the road when this happened. When you're on a bicycle with a hub motor which is assisting you and then that assistance is immediately cut off, it feels like someone has stuck a stick in the spokes of your front wheel. Or, at least, that's what it felt like to me.

I was, none too gracefully, ejected from the bicycle landing pretty badly on the road. Thankfully there was no traffic behind me at the time. I know I picked the bike up and walked it the remaining half mile to work, but I have no recollection of that. Visiting the hospital later I found out that I had a pretty bad concussion, broken my shoulder in two places and had multiple scrapes and bruises. The doctor looking at my head scan was pretty sure that without my helmet, I would have had serious head injuries or worse.

I reported the incident to VanMoof and then immediately arranged collection of the bike and a full refund.

I'm sure than in the five years since then, their bikes and software improved (but maybe not). In general, reviews continued to be extremely positive and other than my own incident didn't hear much in the way of negative stories.

But it ensured I would never buy a hub powered electric assist bike again, nor a bike which relied on connectivity with a third party server to use. On that note, if you have a VanMoof bike, please download the Bikey App from Cowboy to ensure you can continue to use your bike after the VanMoof servers are turned off.

Today I am riding an electric assist bike. But it's not 'smart', has a step through frame (because I'm getting old and was struggling swinging my leg over a crossbar) and doesn't use a hub motor, instead using a mid-drive motor from Bosch. And so far, it's not tried to kill me.