Vanmoof Brings Out the Mechanic in You. And You.

Are you eagerly waiting for a workshop to repair your Vanmoof after the manufacturer had to file for insolvency last year? Then the new owner Lavoie has good news for you. You no longer need to search for a workshop. You will repair your ebike yourself! Isn’t that great?!

Ok, Vanmoof’s latest announcement doesn’t really deserve too much sarcasm. It’s actually a credible attempt by Lavoie to give you a serious helping hand. In November 2023, the company outlined how it intends to solve the pressing service issues surrounding the almost 200,000 ebikes over the next few months, for which the network previously responsible for this has suddenly collapsed.

Database full of expert knowledge

One approach is now aimed directly at those who ride a Vanmoof. From now on, a website will help them by providing detailed instructions on how to repair and assemble ebikes. On the “Vanmoof Archives” you will find manuals, technical drawings and how-to guides that show you, for example, how to assemble an ebike, how to attach and remove components, what certain error codes that appear in the app mean or what the exact product names of all parts are.

Repair and assembly instructions are currently listed for the following models:

• Smart S & Smart X
• S1 & X1
• S2 & X2

According to Lavoie, “additional materials from other series will follow in time”.

This is how the archive website currently looks like.

With this measure, the new owner of the brand wants to fulfil its promise to provide transparent technical support to owners of a Vanmoof. “We hope that by openly publishing these materials, we’ll help them enjoy their VanMoof for longer,” says Eliott Wertheimer, Co-CEO of Vanmoof.

Network is gradually taking shape

In principle, the opening of the Vanmoof Archives is to Lavoie’s credit. After all, the company is putting documents online that were previously treated confidentially and were only available to selected individuals and companies.

At the same time, they are “just” documents. Lavoie can hardly provide the skills and tools required for repairs. And it is for good reason that only trained and certified experts had access to them. This advance of information is therefore valuable, but in no way solves the actual problem.

That is still the same: Skilled personnel are needed to handle the numerous pending repairs across Europe and around the world. Lavoie is apparently working intensively on this. The company is currently establishing a network of workshops and dealers that can take on such tasks. Lavoir trains the partners and equips them with the necessary spare parts and tools.

According to the information on the Vanmoof website, we are currently talking about a total of 21 partners. However, these are located exclusively in the Netherlands and Germany, for example in metropolises such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Düsseldorf. A complete list appears on the Vanmoof website under the menu item “Rider help”. On the next page, simply click on the “Maintenance, Repairs & Partners” tile. There you will find the overview mentioned above with contact details for the individual partners.

Replenishment announced

In addition to knowledge and tools, repairs also require new spare parts. Lavoie has these manufactured and, according to its own information, supplies them to the partners in the service network at operating cost. This also includes parts for the Vanmoof S3 and the Vanmoof X3. Both are currently the brand’s most popular models worldwide.

Pictures: MA Micro LTD