I was always suspicious of buying a way to commute that so heavily relies on apps and proprietary hardware. I’m curious to see what happens to people with Van Moof bikes now. Maybe opening up the...
I was always suspicious of buying a way to commute that so heavily relies on apps and proprietary hardware. I’m curious to see what happens to people with Van Moof bikes now. Maybe opening up the ecosystem to the open source community could save some of the features… anyway, I think as far as biking goes, I will try to stay away from bikes that lose functionality if the company goes under and this includes ones with non-standardized components.
It’s a shame as they had some nice designs, but unfortunately their components were proprietary and difficult to service. Hopefully Cowboy avoids the same fate as they make similarly handsome...
It’s a shame as they had some nice designs, but unfortunately their components were proprietary and difficult to service. Hopefully Cowboy avoids the same fate as they make similarly handsome e-bikes with a removable battery and belt drive.
And again headlight in the frame. Could someone explain the appeal to me, if there's any other than aesthetics? Personally I'd much prefer to see where I'm driving when I turn. This might save me...
And again headlight in the frame. Could someone explain the appeal to me, if there's any other than aesthetics? Personally I'd much prefer to see where I'm driving when I turn. This might save me from falling, preserving my own aesthetics as well as the bike's. Genuinely curious, I might have missed a few memos since I bought my last bike about 10 years ago.
Yes. I don't see the appeal in it (and love adaptive headlights on cars for the same reason). I get the aestheticts, it looks nice and smooth, but I'd feel too much downside when I need on a bad road.
Yes. I don't see the appeal in it (and love adaptive headlights on cars for the same reason). I get the aestheticts, it looks nice and smooth, but I'd feel too much downside when I need on a bad road.
Honestly, for myself and likely most people in a larger metro area, the headlight is more so people can see me than I use it for seeing far ahead of me. In fact, my light is angled more down and...
Honestly, for myself and likely most people in a larger metro area, the headlight is more so people can see me than I use it for seeing far ahead of me. In fact, my light is angled more down and if I'm making a turn where I can't see at all, I'll slow down.
Plus, I've got a more directional helmet lamp I'll use instead of the bike mounted one if I'm riding alone.
This explains it. I live in a rural area, when I get to the gym there aren't street lights on 2/3 the distance (which is a few kilometers). That's why the concept is so strange for me.
This explains it. I live in a rural area, when I get to the gym there aren't street lights on 2/3 the distance (which is a few kilometers). That's why the concept is so strange for me.
It's not like you can't add an extra light to the handle bars if that's really your concern. Granted, concerns on a three grand bike is also something that'll probably be smart not to ignore.
It's not like you can't add an extra light to the handle bars if that's really your concern.
Granted, concerns on a three grand bike is also something that'll probably be smart not to ignore.
I admit I hadn't heard about this company before. I read the news a few days out of curiosity, and my first thought why someone would buy a bike with a headlight in the frame. Like, don't the...
I admit I hadn't heard about this company before. I read the news a few days out of curiosity, and my first thought why someone would buy a bike with a headlight in the frame. Like, don't the customers want to see where they are turning? And the next thing I read were all the concerns if the bikes could still be used given their cloud functionality.
I'm currently not in the market for a bike, but if I was I hope I'll remember that I have to avoid bikes that might be unable to function if somewhere a server goes down. I would have never thought of such a thing otherwise.
I’m not familiar with how cars use cloud technology, but let’s say Tesla goes bankrupt and support for their cars stops existing. Does the car still have most of its functionality? I have a...
I’m not familiar with how cars use cloud technology, but let’s say Tesla goes bankrupt and support for their cars stops existing. Does the car still have most of its functionality?
I have a feeling VanMoof could have solved some of these things like locking the bike from your phone without depending on their servers.
Somewhat related to this, the news now has me wondering about my robot vacuum cleaner because it works through an app. If Shark goes bankrupt, do I lose my vacuum cleaner?
Indeed, the app will stop working if they go backrupt, or decide to pull the rug under your feet and require a subscription, like it happened for "smart" sous-vide machines and crafting machines....
Somewhat related to this, the news now has me wondering about my robot vacuum cleaner because it works through an app. If Shark goes bankrupt, do I lose my vacuum cleaner?
Indeed, the app will stop working if they go backrupt, or decide to pull the rug under your feet and require a subscription, like it happened for "smart" sous-vide machines and crafting machines. This is why I refuse to buy any smart object that does not work offline: if online is required, you don't really own the object.
Many "smart" objects are just dumb actuators with logic hosted on a server. From an engineering perspective, this design has obvious gains:
the device does not need as much processing power and memory, if you move the heavy processing to the cloud
engineers can ship fixes and new features easily by just deploying a new version of the server, instead of requiring all users to upgrade their device's firmware
That is kind of understandable, but of course the MBA types have to ruin it by:
"upselling" you into a subscription, either for some advanced features or even basic ones, only for new users, or retroactively like the two scummy companies I linked to before
"deprecating" features on lower-end products to boost the sales of the higher-priced model
collecting and re-selling personal data without your knowledge & consent
Absolutely, if you can't control or repair it (including paying someone to fix it) , you don't own it. I disagree with your claim that it's good for engineers because they can more easily patch...
Absolutely, if you can't control or repair it (including paying someone to fix it) , you don't own it.
I disagree with your claim that it's good for engineers because they can more easily patch bugs, though. While there is some truth to that, I think it also encourages lazier development because they don't need to try as hard to make something robust/secure if they know they can patch it.
On the other hand, the threat of having to pay to ship out new CDs if your program was buggy used to be big enough that companies couldn't afford to ship poor quality stuff. It made software more expensive, but also more reliable.
I'm not sure what the right balance is, but imo we've swung too far the other way.
They're city bikes. I saw your other post saying you're rural with some questionable streetlighting so I can understand why you're worried about directional lighting but by and large their...
They're city bikes. I saw your other post saying you're rural with some questionable streetlighting so I can understand why you're worried about directional lighting but by and large their intended use is on a straight(ish) bicycle path in the well lit city.
Though, I also think it's more form over function. And I don't like it for either, the form is mediocre and the function is straight up worse.
I was always suspicious of buying a way to commute that so heavily relies on apps and proprietary hardware. I’m curious to see what happens to people with Van Moof bikes now. Maybe opening up the ecosystem to the open source community could save some of the features… anyway, I think as far as biking goes, I will try to stay away from bikes that lose functionality if the company goes under and this includes ones with non-standardized components.
It’s a shame as they had some nice designs, but unfortunately their components were proprietary and difficult to service. Hopefully Cowboy avoids the same fate as they make similarly handsome e-bikes with a removable battery and belt drive.
And again headlight in the frame. Could someone explain the appeal to me, if there's any other than aesthetics? Personally I'd much prefer to see where I'm driving when I turn. This might save me from falling, preserving my own aesthetics as well as the bike's. Genuinely curious, I might have missed a few memos since I bought my last bike about 10 years ago.
Is your complaint that the headlight doesn't turn?
Yes. I don't see the appeal in it (and love adaptive headlights on cars for the same reason). I get the aestheticts, it looks nice and smooth, but I'd feel too much downside when I need on a bad road.
Honestly, for myself and likely most people in a larger metro area, the headlight is more so people can see me than I use it for seeing far ahead of me. In fact, my light is angled more down and if I'm making a turn where I can't see at all, I'll slow down.
Plus, I've got a more directional helmet lamp I'll use instead of the bike mounted one if I'm riding alone.
This explains it. I live in a rural area, when I get to the gym there aren't street lights on 2/3 the distance (which is a few kilometers). That's why the concept is so strange for me.
It's not like you can't add an extra light to the handle bars if that's really your concern.
Granted, concerns on a three grand bike is also something that'll probably be smart not to ignore.
I admit I hadn't heard about this company before. I read the news a few days out of curiosity, and my first thought why someone would buy a bike with a headlight in the frame. Like, don't the customers want to see where they are turning? And the next thing I read were all the concerns if the bikes could still be used given their cloud functionality.
I'm currently not in the market for a bike, but if I was I hope I'll remember that I have to avoid bikes that might be unable to function if somewhere a server goes down. I would have never thought of such a thing otherwise.
I’m not familiar with how cars use cloud technology, but let’s say Tesla goes bankrupt and support for their cars stops existing. Does the car still have most of its functionality?
I have a feeling VanMoof could have solved some of these things like locking the bike from your phone without depending on their servers.
Somewhat related to this, the news now has me wondering about my robot vacuum cleaner because it works through an app. If Shark goes bankrupt, do I lose my vacuum cleaner?
Indeed, the app will stop working if they go backrupt, or decide to pull the rug under your feet and require a subscription, like it happened for "smart" sous-vide machines and crafting machines. This is why I refuse to buy any smart object that does not work offline: if online is required, you don't really own the object.
Many "smart" objects are just dumb actuators with logic hosted on a server. From an engineering perspective, this design has obvious gains:
That is kind of understandable, but of course the MBA types have to ruin it by:
Absolutely, if you can't control or repair it (including paying someone to fix it) , you don't own it.
I disagree with your claim that it's good for engineers because they can more easily patch bugs, though. While there is some truth to that, I think it also encourages lazier development because they don't need to try as hard to make something robust/secure if they know they can patch it.
On the other hand, the threat of having to pay to ship out new CDs if your program was buggy used to be big enough that companies couldn't afford to ship poor quality stuff. It made software more expensive, but also more reliable.
I'm not sure what the right balance is, but imo we've swung too far the other way.
They're city bikes. I saw your other post saying you're rural with some questionable streetlighting so I can understand why you're worried about directional lighting but by and large their intended use is on a straight(ish) bicycle path in the well lit city.
Though, I also think it's more form over function. And I don't like it for either, the form is mediocre and the function is straight up worse.