Ten years ago, this innovative bike company decided to shake up the humble city bike. Let’s take a look and see how they got on.

If anyone should be good at making bikes it’s the Dutch. The Netherlands is littered with them, sometimes literally. A couple of years back in 2017 someone counted bikes. They accounted for 68% of traffic back and forth from school or work and 36% of all traffic movements in the Dutch capital Amsterdam. In terms of bikes per resident, 811.000 folk ride around on 881,000 bicycles. There are more bikes than people!

In dire need of an update

It is no wonder then that it was a couple of Dutch brothers that decided the humble city bike needed a bit of an update. In their own words, they started with “backgrounds in industrial design—and a complete lack of bike industry know-how.” And to be honest, this probably set them in good stead to make some waves in a very “established” industry. It gave them the freedom to think outside the box.

Things that just made sense

When the VanMoof dropped 10 years ago it looked like someone described a bike to an alien and he built it. Basically, there was just a lot of innovations in there that just made sense. The frame was aluminium, the riding position was upright and comfortable, they stripped out all unnecessary bits and bobs like gears, suspension and even the front brake. The back brake was one of those old school pedals back brakes.

A bright idea

But the lights were the real pièce de résistance, they were integrated into the frame. It was one of those innovations where you just look and think, why was that not always done that way.

Doing one thing right

Since then, VanMoof had continued to innovate and explore just what the city bike can be and only the city bike. They have resisted the urge to diversify into other kinds of bicycles. No VanMoof mountain bikes or cargo bikes on the horizon here. This has meant that the sole focus has been on meeting the needs of the city rider. And this meant some new ways of looking at things. They developed the range but at ever step ensured that what they put on the bike had a purpose, a very defined purpose. New frame styles were introduced, disk breaks, geared hubs, even an integrated lock.

Can you make an unstealable bike?

Then VanMoof asked themselves. Can we make a truly unstealable bike? They began to look into how the latest innovations in tech could be used to make a bike safe, secure and ultimately recoverable if the worse was to happen and your bike was nicked.

Like the bikes themselves, the solution was elegant and innovative. The bike is locked and unlocked via your phone. You don’t even need to take your phone out, proximity will be enough. If someone does try and make off with your bike, the back wheel is locked solid and an alarm starts going off. All this makes for too much hassle and attention for your opportunistic bike thief. He will more than likely move onto more easy pickings.

If VanMoof sleuth can’t find your bike, you get a new one.

If your thief is a little more persistent and does make off with your bike. There is a GPS tracker that the VanMoof head office can activate. They guarantee that they will find your bike in 2 weeks or they will get you a new one. There are some entertaining videos of the VanMoof “Bike Hunter” out and about recovering bikes. They even go as far afield as Morocco to recover a bike stolen in Paris!

Emerging e-bike’s

Most recently, VanMoof has turned their attention towards the emerging e-bike market. Now, we won’t go into the pros and cons of an e-bike, not in this article. But true to form VanMoof has created a very refined and distinct version of an e-bike Basically, you can’t really tell it is an e-bike by glancing at it. As well as an electric motor to get your lazy ass up a hill (can you guess what we think of e-bikes ;) you also have all the anti-theft tech innovations mentioned above. And a good thing too, these things ain’t cheap!

What else do we want to see updated?

Looking at a company like VanMoof you are left wondering what would be possible if more people turned their attention to other products that have idled in innovation limbo for far too long. We need individuals like the Carlier brothers. People looking at perfectly good solutions and thinking, what can we make better. Guys, if you ever get bored with shoelaces, can you turn your attention to… suggestions in the comments below.