Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by frxx 419 days ago
Nice article and hack! Two things are confusing me here though:

If this is a VanMoof, I believe they were sold in Japan and even had a Store in Shibuya

Secondly, they were bankrupt, but to my knowledge were bought and is therefore still (again?) in business.
2 comments
franciscop 419 days ago
- Oh sorry, my friend bought it 2nd or 3rd hand after another individual had an accident and I understood they were not in Japan (some repair parts were 3rd party), but I searched and it seems you are right! I'll correct it.

- We tried a few times to recover the account but had some trouble with CS and the particular account, so ended up giving on that. It didn't help that he visits the country from time to time and we'd need to migrate the account each time.

link
frxx 419 days ago
Ahh I see. Yeah there are still many problems with "connected" bikes like this that are easier solved with a hardware hack!
link
doctorpangloss 419 days ago
> The lights don't work without the App.

I've owned a lot of VanMoofs. You absolutely do not need to use the app to interact with the lights, they are automatic. If the bike is misconfigured, it takes about 30 seconds to reset its preferences with a physical button accessible from the exterior, since the SX2.

Your friend may have bought a broken VanMoof.

link
franciscop 419 days ago
> "since the SX2" + "Your friend may have bought a broken VanMoof"

The explanation is that it's one of the first generation ones. Originally there was a single push button outside on the handle, for the Bell, and a single charging micro-USB.

link