Cowboy rides to the rescue of VanMoof owners with app to unlock threatened bikes | Hacker News Reader

Cowboy rides to the rescue of VanMoof owners with app to unlock threatened bikes

techcrunch.com

45 pointsj-a-a-p20 comments

The sad reality is that this will be more common over time as more ebikes come onto the market. The companies making them don't even need to go out of business. For example, Super73 released what they called their 'torque update' which added a small torque boost, but also removed features. They didn't tell anyone about the downsides of updating.

People installed the update without knowing about the removal and were understandably upset. I went ahead and released an app that mitigated some issues [0]. It can't fix everything, but makes using the bike much easier through automation. The problem is, Apple has rejected the app from their store until I get Super73's approval, which will never happen.

Anyway, I'm now looking into jail breaking the bikes, so we can install a custom firmware. (Reach out if you're interested in details!)

[0]: https://github.com/blopker/superduper

That's not an eBike. That's a hardware dongle for an app.

Who else was expecting an article about a guy on a horse chasing down a rogue eBike?

that's exactly what I was picturing https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dsq_jZiB1_U&t=47

Well there ya go! Yee-haw!

This is the sort of marketing that I support. It's providing a service that has a clear value to the user, and is also god-tier trolling, all while getting us to check out their product too (without being pushy about it).

I own a VanMoof and I've got very little faith that this thing is going to last another year - but I hope it does. I really like the bike, and it's sad to have seen the company focusing so heavily on growth to the detriment of quality of their product and service.

Why would anybody ever want a bike to be associated to an app? What are the advantages?

I already feel dirty because my bike has a nabendynamo. Cannot even imagine having an ebike; but I understand its purpose. But a bike connected to the phone? Makes no sense at all. Anybody can explain it to me in terms that I can understand?

In the case of the VanMoof s3 and above the app is used to unlock the bike. It has a “kick lock” that basically locks the rear wheel. When the phone approaches the bike then they communicate via Bluetooth and allows the “kick lock” to release either by pressing the button on the handlebar or tapping on the app’s button (or watch app companion).

Apart from that it allows to change some settings that are not configurable on the bike. The bike has only 2 buttons and an LED display. Useful settings are for example the speed profile for the automatic gear shifting.

Thanks! This answers what the app does (unlock the bike) not why anybody would want that horrifying feature. So if the battery of your phone goes off, you cannot take your bike? Why whould anybody pay for that? I use a cheap D-lock that locks the rear wheel with a tiny key.

If your phone battery dies you can unlock the bike by entering a PIN using a sequence of button presses. It takes about 10 seconds.

I get that you might not see the value in the product, but please try empathise with those who might find it useful.

Personally, it (along with a few other security features) caused the bike thieves who stole my VanMoof recently to give up on the bike and dump it where I was able to grab it thanks to a combination of VanMoof’s inbuilt tracker and the AirTag I stuck in the saddle.

It's amazing.

I can appreciate the _desire_ to have a linked app to deal with the electronic internals of an ebike. We have a Yuba cargo and a Rad, and it'd be cool to "open up the insides and tweak". Yet. Yet.

Honestly, I got a non-ebike very recently (I've been wanting a particular set of features for about 5 years now), and it has been very, very nice to use. No concerns about battery, speed limiting, etc. No cloud servers connecting to an app, either. I can't say I'd recommend an non-ebike to everyone, but it does simplify certain elements of the experience.

My son just got an non-ebike, and we bought parts to convert it to an ebike (a better, a kit with a wheel/motor, control unit, screen, and pedal assist sensor). What I found is that the collection of parts was very much like building a PC. My friend just bought an ebike, and even though functionally it's basically the same, it's more like a Mac in that he can't really swap things out and tinker with it.

Also, not related, but your post sounds like someone who just discovered regular bikes after only having used an e-bike. For someone who only has a regular bike and has grown up with them, that view felt recognizably foreign to me. The world is a changing ...

Hahah, I've ridden bikes for like... 35? years now. Got the ebikes about 4? years ago.

I'm very, ah, midwit about bikes. I like using them - zipping around in the city -, and doing minor repair, but I am not a real gearhead.

Glad to see Cowboy release an app to potentially save us VanMoof owners. For US residents VanMoof had a leg up because there were brand stores open in the US to take bikes to for repair. There's a couple of other features VanMoof bikes had that I preferred over Cowboy's so it's sad to see them go.

At least in Seattle both Amazon and Google partnered with VanMoof to let employees rent or buy bikes so there's a ton of VanMoofs around. I wonder what's going to happen with them.

Hopefully, they can open source this app. And maybe the firmware for VanMoof can be open sourced as well - allowing the community to build a better bike together.

I bought a Cowboy and it broke within 2 weeks. VanMoof is so much better. It is sad to see them dying.

VanMoof bikes are known for breaking quickly. Calling them "so much better" than Cowboy based on a single bad experience doesn't seem totally reasonable.

Here in the Netherlands VanMoof has an _awful_ reputation for shoddy manufacturing and barely existing customer service.

On a related note, anyone have any DRM'd books they can no longer read because the company that owned the tech ceased to exist? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36705070

Sounds like they were VanMoof renters (undefined rental term), not owners.

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