Dutch E-Bike Brand VanMoof Bought Out of Bankruptcy by Scooter Maker (reuters.com) 15
VanMoof, the Dutch e-bike maker that gained a zealous following but declared bankruptcy last month, has been acquired by Lavoie, an upscale electric scooter company, the firms announced on Thursday. From a report: Riders of the expensive and technologically advanced VanMoof bikes were left in limbo by the company's bankruptcy, because the machines are built from proprietary parts that only the company made and many of the bikes' functions are linked to a smartphone app that runs on the company's servers. Despite the buzz around the brand, VanMoof had run into financial problems that led to a production backlog and monthslong waits for sales and repairs.
But riders will not be completely out of limbo under the new ownership. "What they can't expect in the first couple of weeks is definitive answers to the problems," said Nick Fry, the chairman of McLaren Applied, the British motorsports technology company that owns Lavoie. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed, but Mr. Fry said Lavoie would spend "tens of millions" on the transaction as well as in investments over the coming months to "rectify some of the challenges we face." He said, "this is not going to be a walk in the park. This is going to be a challenge." One of the new owner's priorities, he added, was improving the availability of parts and repairs, something that had become increasingly difficult for VanMoof owners. Regular bike shops could not -- or sometimes would not -- fix the bikes.
But riders will not be completely out of limbo under the new ownership. "What they can't expect in the first couple of weeks is definitive answers to the problems," said Nick Fry, the chairman of McLaren Applied, the British motorsports technology company that owns Lavoie. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed, but Mr. Fry said Lavoie would spend "tens of millions" on the transaction as well as in investments over the coming months to "rectify some of the challenges we face." He said, "this is not going to be a walk in the park. This is going to be a challenge." One of the new owner's priorities, he added, was improving the availability of parts and repairs, something that had become increasingly difficult for VanMoof owners. Regular bike shops could not -- or sometimes would not -- fix the bikes.
They had it coming (Score:4, Insightful)
many of the bikes' functions are linked to a smartphone app that runs on the company's servers
If you buy a product that requires the internet and connection to a server you don't control on the other side when the product has no reasons to require any of this, you're a fucking idiot.
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I've been exploring the idea of getting a ebike. It never dawned on me there was anything like that out there. Adding another check box to my bike choices. "not connected to the internet."
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You might want to avoid a bike that's controlled by a cellphone app too, even if it's not on the internet: when the app isn't updated anymore and it barfs on your new Android 27 cellphone because it's not compatible anymore, your bike stops working.
Not to mention what happens when you lose your phone or drop it and break it.
Devices controlled by cellphone apps just because the manufacturer couldn't be bothered to equip them with a decent standalone controller with a screen and buttons are utterly stupid.
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From what I've been able to find its mostly high end ebikes that have this issue. I'm actually looking at a midrange one that doesn't have this issue. Sometimes it pays not to be the top dog.
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Ridstar Q20 is the one I'm currently reviewing.
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looking at the reviews 3 stars and below, you may want to rethink the investment. This is one of my favs:
I bought this bike not even a month ago and now it won’t turn on anymore and I can’t find the retailers phone or any customer service number. I will be sending it back and hope to get my refund back
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Its got 4.1 on Amazon, 5 stars here, and 3.9 there. Those reviews are meaningless. I've been watching some reviews on youtube and all the ones, so far, agree this is a good bike. But I'm still looking.
What I like so far about these bikes like this is there doesn't seem to be any proprietary parts. Pretty much most all them are made from off the shelf parts. Meaning that they can be upgraded and altered with little effort.
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Those reviews are meaningless.
12% of the reviews are 1 star, just saying buyer beware.
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Yeah. I'm not sold on that one. It has other things that I don't' like about it. No turn signals and no room for cargo.
The lack of turn signals isn't a big deal. A couple of hours and a after market set can be added. It's the cargo room that is turning out to be a show stopper. I'm looking for something to ride for fun, but also to replace my car on short duration trips to the store. It doesn't need to be able to haul back a week of groceries, but I would like to have room for a bag or something.
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If you buy a product that requires the internet and connection to a server
It doesn't. The bike is perfectly functional without a connection, or even without your phone present.
In other news you're an idiot for using navigation systems (since they all require a connection to a server you don't control on the internet). How dare you use a value added feature on your phone that requires a connection to the internet.
Also I'm printing this and sending it to you via telegram since you're too clever to trust Slashdot servers to read replies right?
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Navigation systems that require an internet connection ARE STUPID.
Storage is a pretty cheap. Route computation isnt computationally prohibitive to do in small devices now. Sure you still depend on GPS/GLONASS/Galileo but its not hard to support at least two of these in a given device either. For larger devices slapping some accelerators, a magnetic compass, and a clock in there so it can dead recon for a bit when it can't see the sky is also pretty reasonable for something larger like bike or car.
Why you w
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But, but, I have to get marketable, anonymized data about your usage patterns, weight, income, and where you go! You can't deny me that! After all, I charged you thousands for this bicycle.
Non-Paywalled Edition of the Story (Score:3)
here is a non-paywalled version. [usnews.com]