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pierrenoir2017 on
Just made this rough concept to explore a 2nd life for my VanMoof S3.
**Some background:**
I was one of the early bird buyers of the first VanMoof Electrified S2 around 2017/2018.
VanMoof made very solid and well designed (non electric) bicycles until that time. Launching a similar bike as an electrical driven solution sounded like a perfect match at that time as a good fit for everyday use.
Not surprisingly with today’s knowledge, it turned out quite disastrous.
I experienced a lot of problems and I had to disassamble my S2 and ship it to the headquarters multiple times as it was malfunctioning most of the time. This frustrating process took at least 2 years.
After a long time of frustration and bad service, I decided to not sit down with this situation. I put a lot of effort to contact and convince them that this was a big waste of money, file complaints, etc.
Eventually they offered a newer – recent returned – Electrified S3 for a relatively small price. It started quite well, but different problems accured and after multiple service appointments it again wasn’t a useful product. It’s skipping whilepedalling so I can only go forward by using their ‘boost’ button wich simply makes it a stupid and unreliable moped.
They eventueally went bankrupt last year and I gave up trying.
In the meantime I was using my MTB most of the time and bought a Cube gravelbike later on that I really like and use the most.
**Regarding the old unusable VanMoof:**
I still like the size, it’s design, colors and details, and I was having this idea to explore a 2nd life for this bicycle with the following ideas:
* remove all the electronics and the heavy battery
* keep the front and back lights (so it would still need a battery, but smaller)
* find a way to re-use the matrix display
* explore other needs, like gears and shifting as it is all part of the elecronic transmission.
* add a race / gravel steer to change the overal driving position
* find the tyres that would go with this set-up
It’s just a rough idea / sketch and the frame is not designed for a more race-like driving position of course, but it would make a nice everyday-doing-the-groceries-kind-of-bike.
Just curious about anyone’s thoughts on the idea.
Something to dive deeper into? Or really a waste of time?
(I am not that technically knowledged and a concept designer by day)
Let me know.
RocketScientistToBe on
Maybe you can get a dyno to work with the lights?
Frequent-Pause1331 on
Looks nice! How much weight you estimate without the battery and the electronic components? I recon it’s a heavy bike
4 Comments
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* Location (specific or general is fine)
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Just made this rough concept to explore a 2nd life for my VanMoof S3.
**Some background:**
I was one of the early bird buyers of the first VanMoof Electrified S2 around 2017/2018.
VanMoof made very solid and well designed (non electric) bicycles until that time. Launching a similar bike as an electrical driven solution sounded like a perfect match at that time as a good fit for everyday use.
Not surprisingly with today’s knowledge, it turned out quite disastrous.
I experienced a lot of problems and I had to disassamble my S2 and ship it to the headquarters multiple times as it was malfunctioning most of the time. This frustrating process took at least 2 years.
After a long time of frustration and bad service, I decided to not sit down with this situation. I put a lot of effort to contact and convince them that this was a big waste of money, file complaints, etc.
Eventually they offered a newer – recent returned – Electrified S3 for a relatively small price. It started quite well, but different problems accured and after multiple service appointments it again wasn’t a useful product. It’s skipping whilepedalling so I can only go forward by using their ‘boost’ button wich simply makes it a stupid and unreliable moped.
They eventueally went bankrupt last year and I gave up trying.
In the meantime I was using my MTB most of the time and bought a Cube gravelbike later on that I really like and use the most.
**Regarding the old unusable VanMoof:**
I still like the size, it’s design, colors and details, and I was having this idea to explore a 2nd life for this bicycle with the following ideas:
* remove all the electronics and the heavy battery
* keep the front and back lights (so it would still need a battery, but smaller)
* find a way to re-use the matrix display
* explore other needs, like gears and shifting as it is all part of the elecronic transmission.
* add a race / gravel steer to change the overal driving position
* find the tyres that would go with this set-up
It’s just a rough idea / sketch and the frame is not designed for a more race-like driving position of course, but it would make a nice everyday-doing-the-groceries-kind-of-bike.
Just curious about anyone’s thoughts on the idea.
Something to dive deeper into? Or really a waste of time?
(I am not that technically knowledged and a concept designer by day)
Let me know.
Maybe you can get a dyno to work with the lights?
Looks nice! How much weight you estimate without the battery and the electronic components? I recon it’s a heavy bike