Vanmoof S3 E-bike Review

Re:Vanmoof S3 E-bike Review by angry_octet on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @10:33AM (#22935267)

How exactly am I supposed to charge this? Take my bike in the lift up to the office/apartment? Maybe its because I'm not in California, but I've never seen a bike cage with charging stations -- and I'm sure it needs an expensive power brick. Without the ability to bring the battery with you for charging, this is an expensive toy for rich people in suburbia.

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Re:Vanmoof S3 E-bike Review by rzwitserloot on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @10:46AM (#22935356)

The reviewer also listed this as biggest downside to these bikes, so I assume the reviewer did contact VanMoof to ask about it, and did not get a satisfactory answer.

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 :(

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Re:Vanmoof S3 E-bike Review by veidr on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @05:38PM (#22939595)

I have the VanMoof X2 ebike, which has the same non-removable battery. Yes, taking your bike up in the lift is what VanMoof expects you to do.

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.

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Re:Vanmoof S3 E-bike Review by angry_octet on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @07:04PM (#22940264)

I like the battery pack more than the bike... I'd get a bigger one if I could, since running my laptop doing CUDA stuff sucks 240W.

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Re:Vanmoof S3 E-bike Review by xky on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @10:34AM (#22935276)

You beat me to it. I'm wondering the same thing.

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