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>For context: VanMoof bicycles are pretty much on the premium side of the spectrum. This is the perception many people have but they're actually a bit cheaper

>For context: VanMoof bicycles are pretty much on the premium side of the spectrum. This is the perception many people have but they're actually a bit cheaper than the average ebike, starting at €2200 when you would expect to pay about €2500 for most ebikes.

Freak_NL 3y ago
(€ works on HackerNews, HTML escapes don't.)
onehp 3y ago
Prices have dropped quite considerably recently. You can now pick up an e-bike as cheaply as €500. Once you get out of the "budget" range I'd expect to be paying more like €1500 for an average one.
- yourusername 3y ago
  Where can i pick up these €500 ebikes? I've never seen one under €900 and that is with absolute garbage parts. Once you have some decent parts on there they are quickly 2000+.
  - dreamcompiler 3y ago
    The Jetson Haze is $549 at Costco. I didn't buy one because it's too small for me to ride comfortably, and the battery is too small. Plus as an all-Chinese bike I'd want to read some long-term reliability reports before buying.
  - onehp 3y ago
    The cheapest here is around €500 (depending on exchange rates), with plenty under €1500. https://electroheads.com/collections/all-electric-bikes?filter.v.price.gte=&filter.v.price.lte=&sort_by=price-ascending https://electroheads.com/collections/all-electric-bikes?filt...
- dreamcompiler 3y ago
  All the reasonably good ebikes I've checked recently are now several hundred dollars more expensive than a year ago. You can watch a year-old review on Youtube which mentions prices, then go to the company's website to see how the prices have increased.
tda 3y ago
Especially when at introduction of the S3 a few years ago. The only alternatives in the same price range as Van Moof were very ugly / no-brand e-bikes. The S2 predecessor came in at €3500, the S3 was introduced at €1900. It is/was by all means a cheap bike, with cheap parts, sold at a low price, but with a premium image. However in the last few years a lot has changed, and in no small part thanks to Van Moof. There are now plenty of competitors on the market that are more affordable, use more standard and more easily replaceable parts and have higher build quality. The Van Moof S3 has only gone up in price, while no changes have been made to address it's flaws. So when I bought my S3 bike in 2020 it was a reasonable choice, even though I was well aware of the quality issues. And though almost every part on my bike has been replaced at least once (at no cost to me), I have no regrets of my choice back then; there were practically no alternatives back then. But my next bike will surely not be a Van Moof. The brand has served it's purpose, popularising e-bikes for non-pensioners. But they made a few costly design mistakes, and instead of backtracking they doubled down. In my opinion the automatic electric shifter without a pedal-force sensor is the main flaw. You can't control the shift moment (I guess because manual shift buttons would interfere with the design). The hub gear is not designed for shifting under load, so sooner or later it will break as the auto shifter chooses just the wrong moment. Also due to the lack of a pedal-force sensor, shifting is only based on speed. When going up a hill or with heavy head wind, I would prefer to ride in a lower gear. This requires opening up the app and change the shifting profile. No thank you! TLDR: Either manually controlled shifting or a inclusion of pedal force sensor would have solved 90% procent of the issues with the bike. Refusing to acknowledge such a basic design mistake is a god reason to go bankrupt. So thanks for the effort, but this is the market working as it is supposed to do. Bye bye Van Moof, good riddance
- mcv 3y ago
  > So when I bought my S3 bike in 2020 it was a reasonable choice, even though I was well aware of the quality issues. And though almost every part on my bike has been replaced at least once (at no cost to me) Every part replaced over a 3 year period? I can see how they're going bankrupt.
  - tda 3y ago

Freak_NL 3y ago

(€ works on HackerNews, HTML escapes don't.)

onehp 3y ago

Prices have dropped quite considerably recently. You can now pick up an e-bike as cheaply as €500. Once you get out of the "budget" range I'd expect to be paying more like €1500 for an average one.

yourusername 3y ago
Where can i pick up these €500 ebikes? I've never seen one under €900 and that is with absolute garbage parts. Once you have some decent parts on there they are quickly 2000+.
- dreamcompiler 3y ago
  The Jetson Haze is $549 at Costco. I didn't buy one because it's too small for me to ride comfortably, and the battery is too small. Plus as an all-Chinese bike I'd want to read some long-term reliability reports before buying.
- onehp 3y ago
  The cheapest here is around €500 (depending on exchange rates), with plenty under €1500. https://electroheads.com/collections/all-electric-bikes?filter.v.price.gte=&filter.v.price.lte=&sort_by=price-ascending https://electroheads.com/collections/all-electric-bikes?filt...
dreamcompiler 3y ago
All the reasonably good ebikes I've checked recently are now several hundred dollars more expensive than a year ago. You can watch a year-old review on Youtube which mentions prices, then go to the company's website to see how the prices have increased.

tda 3y ago

Especially when at introduction of the S3 a few years ago. The only alternatives in the same price range as Van Moof were very ugly / no-brand e-bikes. The S2 predecessor came in at €3500, the S3 was introduced at €1900. It is/was by all means a cheap bike, with cheap parts, sold at a low price, but with a premium image. However in the last few years a lot has changed, and in no small part thanks to Van Moof. There are now plenty of competitors on the market that are more affordable, use more standard and more easily replaceable parts and have higher build quality. The Van Moof S3 has only gone up in price, while no changes have been made to address it's flaws. So when I bought my S3 bike in 2020 it was a reasonable choice, even though I was well aware of the quality issues. And though almost every part on my bike has been replaced at least once (at no cost to me), I have no regrets of my choice back then; there were practically no alternatives back then. But my next bike will surely not be a Van Moof. The brand has served it's purpose, popularising e-bikes for non-pensioners. But they made a few costly design mistakes, and instead of backtracking they doubled down. In my opinion the automatic electric shifter without a pedal-force sensor is the main flaw. You can't control the shift moment (I guess because manual shift buttons would interfere with the design). The hub gear is not designed for shifting under load, so sooner or later it will break as the auto shifter chooses just the wrong moment. Also due to the lack of a pedal-force sensor, shifting is only based on speed. When going up a hill or with heavy head wind, I would prefer to ride in a lower gear. This requires opening up the app and change the shifting profile. No thank you! TLDR: Either manually controlled shifting or a inclusion of pedal force sensor would have solved 90% procent of the issues with the bike. Refusing to acknowledge such a basic design mistake is a god reason to go bankrupt. So thanks for the effort, but this is the market working as it is supposed to do. Bye bye Van Moof, good riddance

mcv 3y ago
> So when I bought my S3 bike in 2020 it was a reasonable choice, even though I was well aware of the quality issues. And though almost every part on my bike has been replaced at least once (at no cost to me) Every part replaced over a 3 year period? I can see how they're going bankrupt.
- tda 3y ago