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I own VanMoofs, and I live near a brand store. I also own a car, and I used to own a Stromer, which doesn't have brand stores. I can't believe anyone desires t

I own VanMoofs, and I live near a brand store. I also own a car, and I used to own a Stromer, which doesn't have brand stores. I can't believe anyone desires the experience of the auto mechanic, for anything. Like I know that's something that exists obviously and is something people do, like people go to normal bike shops. But it doesn't make sense. If people want to buy crappy bikes they can. There's an ecosystem for that. VanMoof's problems are complicated, there are a lot of super low information comments on HN right now. I'm not interested in people's anecdotes, and I'm not sharing any either. All I'm saying is that in my experience, with every product I've owned, the VanMoof approach has been better for me, as a consumer, and that I only hope that they figure out pricing to make it sustainable in the future.

gonehome 3y ago
+1 tight vertical integration leads to better products, better defaults, and better user experience in the (vast) majority of cases across most product domains. It’s sad to see them fail, hopefully someone else will be able to pull it off. I guess my $20 deposit for their faster e-bike is unlikely to ever come to anything. Maybe I should just get a used stromer.
- chrischen 3y ago
  $20 nothing I had a fully prepaid bike order from a year ago that never shipped.
m01 3y ago
I wonder if your opinion would be any different if you lived further away from a brand store, maybe because you moved, or because the store moved/closed.
- madeofpalk 3y ago
  …or because the company went bankrupt?
jacquesm 3y ago
How did the Stromer work for you? Was it an e-bike or s-pedelec version?