Enlarge / VanMoof’s X3 bike in 2020. In our review, we noted that its looks garnered “universal drool,” while everything else ranged “from serviceable to questionable.” (credit: Sam Machkovech)
VanMoof e-bikes have a look, and price tag, from the near future. They’re also a bit endangered these days, as their Netherlands-based maker has run out of money and asked for temporary protection from creditors. Sensing this, a Belgian e-bike company jumped in to provide an app that should help VanMoof owners keep riding, even if the parent company stalls out.
VanMoof has had administrators appointed to it by a Dutch court, protecting it from creditors for at least a two-month “cooling down period” while it explores options, according to a company spokesperson and media reports. After devoted customers began to notice outages and halts to order-taking last week, the company closed its retail stores in New York, Tokyo, Berlin, and other locations. A company spokesperson told Forbes last week that the company would “work hard to continue our services” and would contact customers about pending deliveries or repairs.
Many, if not most, bike owners can get by just fine if their bike’s maker disappears, at least past their warranty period. VanMoof bikes, however, offload many of their configuration functions to a smartphone app and are much easier to unlock with a phone than manually. Models like the X3 Ars tested in 2020 have automatic shifting, which all but demands regular tweaking with a phone to adapt their behavior to different rides and preferences.
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