Vanmoof S3 E-bike Review
theverge.com
theverge.com
The optional Peace of Mind theft recovery service costs $290 / €290 for three years. If VanMoof’s Bike Hunters can’t locate your bike within two weeks, they’ll replace it with a bike of similar or better age and condition (first replacement is free, 2nd and 3rd cost $98 / €98).
In England, they'd locate the bike in someone's backyard, the police would say "eh, we can't be bothered to get a warrant to search this house just for a bicycle", and that would be the end of it.
The hub motor is excellent. It gives you all-wheel drive which is a bit odd in a bicycle and can catch you out in very slippery conditions (mud on paved towpath by side of river, this is slippery for every bike and every foot, but the front-wheel drive can cause an extra slide).
The battery lasts well. I don’t always need it hiked to full power (setting 4) and am happy to ride it at anything from 1-3. There is a boost button that provides extra oomph for climbing hills or getting away quickly.
It’s not crazy heavy.
It’s a properly vertically-integrated e-bike where everything is designed together and works together. If you want a bicycle with a motor and battery bolted-on, there’s plenty of alternatives. The service has been excellent from VanMoof and the only flaw is that the rear mudguard somehow doesn’t work and my entire back is covered in mud on a wet ride.
I paid full-price and it is an outstanding bicycle. I imagine the S3/X3 will be even better. I resisted the chance to buy one of those early.
As is no ability to 'mod' it for higher speeds (the engine completely cuts out at ~22mph).
Its weight and limited power and speed means that in a drag race with a similar strength rider against a non-electric bike, it will lose off the line and remain slower for a half mile or so until the riders get tired.
It is the tortoise in the race of the hare and tortoise.
In my experience (as a decently fit regular rider riding a lightweight city bike in a city with a big cycling culture and lots of e-bikes around) the only time I don’t get toasted by an e-bike is if the rider chooses not to.
Many basic e-bikes have 250w motors; the Vanmoof’s is apparently more powerful. 250w plus a little extra from the rider is a significant amount of power to put out, in riding terms. Putting out ~300w for more than a few seconds is likely beyond the abilities of most commuting riders. More serious regular riders could likely do it for some minutes, but usually wouldn’t want to do so, dressed in office gear, on a commute.
Last data point: my girlfriend has a big heavy e-MTB with a 250w motor. I have to work hard on a high end CF road bike to keep up out of junctions. Off the line, with the immediacy of the motors power, is actually one of the big advantages.
I would say the average commuter can put out 300w for 10 seconds. They would hate it but everytime you see a commuter straining up a hill, they are putting that kind of wattage. In practice they probably don't because they don't like the strain.
I've been a clipless pedal user for about 25 years now :)
In reality the wattage is nominal, I'm pretty sure the Bosch motor on my bike is peaking at closer to 500w. The manufacturers don't seem to take these figures that seriously unlike the maximum speed cutoff.
The mass of a bicycle and rider is relatively low, so there just isn't much energy to recover. It's not worth the more expensive motor and controller required to do it.
Some ebikes have firmware mods to do it - others not so much.
The main added difficulty is you can't recharge batteries too fast - and typical braking would produce too much power, and damage the batteries. If you didn't want to destroy your batteries, your regen would have to be pretty tame - more of a "gentle resistance" than "braking".
Ebike batteries' range is around 20 to 100 km (account something like 50% less when the battery starts to wear out). I guess that people using it frequently need to charge it at least every other day.
- removable batteries can be stolen,
- can have issues due to bad weather.
They consider their design safer on those two points. It's imho a mistake.
There are many companies producing electric bikes right now: I prefer to see a company that tries to do something different targeting a smaller market segments than seeing the same kind of one-size-fits-all model across multiple brands.
When purchasing an e-bike a removable battery was a must have. The one I wound up purchasing has a pretty heavy duty locking mechanism for the battery so I never really have to worry about it being stolen.
Most e-bikes have a removable battery pack which you can then lug upstairs; a lot more convenient than dragging the entire bike up there.
VanMoof is a dutch company, where bikes are popular even out in the sticks (where garages are common). There are also bike charging stations, but they certainly aren't standard in the bigger cities, which does make it a bizarre choice to make the pack non-removable.
Note that a battery pack, if it is removable, needs a locking system and a bunch of extra material in order to allow the battery pack to not be (easily) stolen and for the system to survive the wear and tear of having it removed so often. Presumably by making the pack non-removable except for servicing, it saves weight and volume.
That makes it impractical for many places, unfortunately :(
I live on the top floor of an apartment building, and it is annoying to bring the bike up every time it needs to charge, so I bought this large power bank: https://www.amazon.com/SUAOKI-Generators-Portable-Generator-...
I just bring that thing down to the bike parking area when I take out the trash, and charge the bike from that. It holds enough power to fill the bike.
It does add a few hundred to the cost, making it even more expensive. OTOH though I live in the city and use the ebike instead of a car, so I could probably buy a new ebike every year and still save money.
When I looked into getting an e-bike I was amazed on how many brands just where reselling products (in their own name) made by a few Chinese factories that also sold the same bicycle on Alibaba.
I ended up getting a Xiaomi C20 which so far has served me well.
The Cowboy looks a bit better to me with its central motor and removable battery but the Vanmoof looks more comfy. The review doesn't mention anything about that.
Is there any other significant difference between the two bikes? If you bought one of those, which criteria were decisive in your decision?
try both kinds. I found the central-motor style pretty dull and sluggish.
I understand the fitness requirement is also a feature, depending on your perspective. But for a lot of folks who are older or have health limitations, a nice-looking, easy to ride e-bike that could truly “flatten” San Francisco would be game changing. We’re inching closer to that, and I’m excited to see it when it gets here.
when i lived in SF, i rode my (non-electric) bike everywhere. my experience was that there were only a handful of hills that were truly problematic and most of them had nearby flatter bypasses. worst case would be walking the bike up the steepest hundred feet or so.
none of the (tops of) hills themselves were common destinations, unless you could afford to live there, but then you likely could also afford the expense of a high-end bike with a more powerful motor and bigger battery.
Though even the Lyft rental ebikes aren't bad. I had one take my 190lb bulk up the steep hill from Aquatic Park Pier to Black Point (by Fort Mason) without much effort.
I think at least a 500W hub motor is required for SF
The Lacuba Evo Lite looks pretty normal and has a ton of power.
Cons: Carrying a 19kg (22lbs) e-bike upstairs to my 1st floor (2nd floor) apartment a few times a week to charge it.
Thats quite light for an e-bike.
There are lots of options with removable batteries, too, but if you can park/lock your bike downstairs maybe you can also just run an extension cord?
I was impressed (and bought) this Faraday. The faraday is just absolutely the perfect city bike.
https://electricbikereview.com/faraday/porteur/
For something more speedy, I was really impressed with the older Stromer (not the latest one)
It's really a shame that Faraday got bought out and stopped making bicycles, yet doesn't make it clear on their website that they've gone out of business, which is crucial information for anyone thinking about buying one. Some of their custom parts, like the internal battery pack, will be difficult to replace once they run out of inventory.
Today I use a Tern GSD instead (in part because of the cargo capacity, in part b/c of standard Bosch parts), and I'm trying to sell my Faraday, although the pandemic has interfered with that somewhat. If anyone is in the Philadelphia area and wants a Faraday Porteur, please take it off my hands :)
I want to try one of these out now... I wonder if I can rent one now to see if I like it. I'm curious how it rides in slow speeds in traffic w/ lights, see if I miss the fine control of fixed gear at slow speeds.
I found that maximally raising the handlebars improves it a lot. For the older models this is something you had to arrange at ordering or take the bike to a service center for.
Interesting point about the chain. What causes more strain, specifically? Essentially, if a certain power is required to go at a certain speed, what makes it different if it's muscle only, or mixed muscle/engine?
This makes me think this bike is marketed at people who perhaps have little previous experience with bicycles.
IMO, the only weird thing is that the wheels of the smaller model are only 24”.
So people with body length differences of 40 or 45cm are to use the same bicycle.
I find that hilarious. There's like 20 frame sizes in that range. Most good manufacturers offer at least a dozen.
Can't be good for your knees and your back.
I have noticed with mine that there is a bit of a stressful sound from the gears if I apply the throttle from a dead stop, esp. if up an incline. So I typically will start peddling first a couple times then ease on the throttle. Not sure how this would work on a different setup that uses a peddle sensor though.
What do you think is a reasonable top speed (or power, the two are related) at which point someone blasting by you in the bike lane feels more like road traffic?
... But the thing I get the most excited about is how amazing the frame with the integrated lights looks.