VanMoof was as soon as thought-about a serious participant within the electrical bicycle business, and probably the most promising producers when it got here to energetic city mobility. Sadly, issues haven’t been going too easily for the Dutch firm, and it needed to resort to submitting for chapter and ceasing operations in its dwelling nation of the Netherlands. We talked about this in additional element in a earlier article, and again then it already appeared fairly unhealthy.
A latest report from Electrek appears to recommend that issues have taken a flip for the more severe even nonetheless. VanMoof reportedly put up an indication on the door of its flagship retailer in Amsterdam studying “We’re Closed,” with high quality print on the backside instructing prospects to select their bikes up between August 16 to 18, 2023. Which means that people who had beforehand left their bikes in for repairs and servicing would now have to select up their bikes – presumably in an unrepaired state – earlier than the August 18 deadline.
Electrek’s article doesn’t point out what’s going to occur to unclaimed bikes after August 18, but it surely does point out that prospects have gotten an increasing number of disgruntled with the model, and understandably so. In truth, the report states that riders rushed to the VanMoof retailer to select up their bikes following the model’s chapter announcement, solely to be met with locked doorways. This led to riders reporting the corporate for bike theft, and Dutch police needed to challenge an announcement to ask riders to cease reporting thefts towards the corporate.
We will assume that because the announcement of chapter, VanMoof has not repaired or serviced any of the bikes left with them, so prospects should discover their very own option to restore the bikes. Naturally, that is irritating and worrisome for VanMoof riders who depend on their bikes for his or her day by day mobility. That being mentioned, all hope just isn’t misplaced, as various service and restore choices have just lately sprung up. For instance, De Broers Fietesen in Amersfoort is a VanMoof-certified workshop – again when VanMoof was nonetheless working. Regardless of VanMoof’s closure, the workshop continues accepting restore and upkeep jobs for the e-bikes.
In an article by NL Instances, De Broers Fietesen (translating to “The Bicycle Brothers” in English) proprietor Tamor Hartogs acknowledged, “We will certainly restore the bicycles with out being depending on VanMoof merchandise. So we don’t want them anymore.” Hartogs explains that his workshop not solely maintains and repairs bikes, however makes them extra sturdy and future-proof. “That sounds harsh, but it surely’s the reality. And I even dare say that the bicycles have turn out to be much more future-proof this manner. They now last more,” he concluded.
On prime of this, Upway, a French firm specializing within the restore and refurbishing of e-bikes, just lately introduced that it was opening its doorways to VanMoof prospects to assist restore and repair their bikes. In truth, an article by Bicycle Retailer highlights that Upway has introduced a restore program for VanMoof bikes in New York, with an preliminary 500 restore slots for $99 USD plus elements allotted. The payment consists of transportation to Upway’s warehouse in Brooklyn, in addition to supply again to the proprietor inside a four-week timeframe.