[gibagger]

These are terrible. Frequently modified by the seller to work just by squeezing the throttle. In any case, even if they don't do that, all it takes is for people to lazily flop their legs to trigger the sensors just enough so that the engine can kick in. These are, by all practical intents and purposes, scooters without plates and without mandatory helmet.

I also dislike that these modified ebikes (not just the fat ones, but also some older models of vanmoof) can do 35-40 silently on a bike lane. I've had a couple close calls because they caught up to you almost three times as fast as a regular person on a regular bicycle do and, unlike the dirty mopeds, they are noiseless so you don't hear them coming with enough notice.

[pchangr]

AFAIK, those were US models driving in EU. https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/10/21558235/vanmoof-slows-s...

[serf]

the speed thing isn't something that can be easily regulated without proper enforcement; it's trivial to convert a bike to an e-bike, and the open source firmwares and controllers out there are free of mandatory or regional speed-limiters.

it's nice that vanmoof tried to help on their side, but it's something that should be enforced at the local traffic/policing level.