Van poof! Dutch e-bike maker VanMoof goes bankrupt, leaving riders stranded

AMSTERDAM — Greater than two-thirds of the inhabitants of Amsterdam commutes to work on two wheels, and a few, like workplace employee Brian Rueterkemp, desire to do it in fashion.

“I feel one of many issues I actually respect about my bike is having a lift button,” he says about his VanMoof, an electrical bike that, over time, has turn out to be a hipster accent each in Europe and in the US.

However the model, thought-about by many bicyclists the Tesla of e-bikes, has gone bankrupt; its cofounders are in talks with exterior teams to revive the failed firm.

The Dutch startup’s bikes have turn out to be well-known for his or her modern design and ease of use via a smartphone app. However VanMoof’s downfall has left prospects like Rueterkemp stranded.

Rueterkemp purchased his VanMoof 9 months in the past for round $4,000, and he is ridden it practically every single day since, continuously urgent the bike’s “increase” button to go fellow commuters on his solution to his startup in downtown Amsterdam.

He is additionally keen on the bike’s built-in alarm that alerts him through the corporate’s app every time somebody a lot as nudges his bike, a modern, powder-blue minimalist machine whose battery, motherboard, e-shifter and SIM card are all engineered to suit snugly inside its aluminum alloy body.

“Now I am a bit frightened of what is going on to occur after I do have any points,” Rueterkemp admits. “If one thing breaks the e-shifter, then you need to discover one other VanMoof biker who desires to share their e-shifter, otherwise you’re screwed.”

Fixing a VanMoof has turn out to be one huge headache

A couple of canals away at a motorcycle restore store, Joram Hartogs says he refuses to restore VanMoofs, “as a result of they’re not possible to restore.”

“They’re so sealed off with their very own tools that no one else besides them can repair it,” he says.

Hartogs says he’ll solely agree to repair VanMoof tires, as a result of the model’s engineers made it subsequent to not possible to open the body that incorporates all of the components.

“All bike manufacturers have a sure commonplace,” says Hartogs about VanMoof, “and so they went round each commonplace that was accessible as a result of they did not need to do something with common bike components. So now they created every thing themselves, and it retains breaking as a result of they needed to over-design it.”

Hartogs says VanMoof’s creators fancied their firm to be like Apple — creating distinctive merchandise that will spawn its personal ecosystem — however Hartogs says the corporate ran out of cash as a result of, in contrast to Apple’s merchandise, VanMoof’s specialised bikes typically broke down, and their upkeep retailers and beneficiant guarantee insurance policies could not sustain.

“The cellphone is ringing like each second, all day it is ringing,” complains former VanMoof upkeep contractor Tamor Hartogs (who isn’t any relation to Joram).

With VanMoof now not paying him to repair bikes beneath guarantee, Tamor Hartogs is now left negotiating sophisticated repairs with particular person prospects.

With out entry to VanMoof components, he is solely been in a position to restore e-shifters to two-speed gearshifts as an alternative of their regular four-speed variations. He is additionally been diminished to taking out the corporate’s patented cylindrical batteries from VanMoof bike frames by rigorously breaking them aside and putting in new inner parts.

“I can cry within the nook, however I simply thought, ‘Let’s work laborious and let’s make some new cash,'” he says.

Hartogs is aware of VanMoof’s creators are in talks to promote their defunct firm, however he says if that occurs, he does not suppose the brand new homeowners can pay his payments.

When requested for remark, VanMoof’s international head of communications replied by e mail: “I am afraid I am unable to make anybody accessible in the intervening time — seeing that we’re all fired apart from the founders.”

Beside a motorcycle lane in Amsterdam, the VanMoof biker Brian Rueterkemp has a brand new accent: a thick, old style bike-lock chain he is carried round because the chapter was introduced: safety in opposition to different VanMoof bike homeowners.

“I’ve heard numerous tales that they search for bikes to get their very own bike fastened, and steal it,” says Rueterkemp, including that if his bike will get snatched now, there isn’t any solution to acquire on his VanMoof insurance coverage coverage.

And may his bike’s inner alarm go off whereas somebody’s making an attempt to steal his bike for components, there isn’t a longer anybody on the opposite finish of that VanMoof app who’s listening.