VanMoof: the workshop that came back to life.

VanMoof fell apart. Then it got interesting. What happened next wasn't a relaunch or a pivot or a press-release miracle it was something quieter, and in a way, more honest. A workshop came back to life.

Once, in the humming heart of Amsterdam, a dream nearly died. VanMoof was that dream: a vision of sleek design, silent motion, and cities reborn around clean mobility. But like many bold visions, it flew a little too close to the sun. The system buckled. The company, once swelling with momentum and glowing reviews, teetered on the edge of extinction. For a few tense months, it genuinely looked like it was over.

It wasn't.

There's a building in Amsterdam-West VanMoof's former brand store and service hub. From the outside, it looks quiet now. Almost sleepy. But if you know what you're looking at, you can feel it: the pulse of something being rebuilt. It used to be louder. Busier. A little chaotic. Now, it's focused. And that shift matters more than it sounds.

A dream that flew too fast

VanMoof was supposed to win. It had the looks, the tech, the cult following, the waiting lists. For a while, it did win or at least, it felt like it did. Riders across Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Paris, and New York turned their heads every time an S3 rolled past. The company was growing like a startup people actually wanted to believe in.

But fast growth has a way of hiding cracks. Warranty costs climbed. Service queues grew. Parts backed up. And when the cracks finally showed, everything came down fast. A team of over a thousand people dropped to under a hundred. Brand stores shuttered across Europe. Orders froze. In July 2023, the original Dutch entity filed for bankruptcy.

It was almost over. But that's not what happened.

Sometimes the best version of something comes after the collapse not before.

What's left after you break?

McLaren Applied-backed mobility group Lavoie stepped in and bought the remaining VanMoof assets out of administration. It wasn't loud. There was no confetti. Just a small team, a workshop in Amsterdam-West, a huge archive of serial numbers, and a community of riders who never really stopped loving the bikes underneath them.

VanMoof didn't go back to normal. It didn't try to "scale again" or drown the world in marketing. Instead, it shrank, recalibrated, and started obsessing over the right things. Not everything. Just the right things:

• Bringing service back. Existing S3, X3, S5 and A5 bikes got a path to repair instead of a slow death in a shed.
• Letting go of the S4/X4 program. A clean line was drawn. No more promises the company couldn't keep.
• Simplifying the lineup. Fewer models. Clearer choices. Less noise.
• Partnering with independent bike shops. The old, closed-off strategy was replaced with something more humble real mechanics, real workshops, real relationships.
• Reconnecting with the community. Slowly. Carefully. Without pretending the last two years never happened.

It's not loud. It's patient. And patience, right now, is exactly what this brand needs.

Behind closed doors, something is brewing

Then came the interesting part McLaren Applied.

Yes, that McLaren. Performance DNA. Carbon-fiber obsession. Speed as a religion. The kind of engineering partner that doesn't usually mess around with bicycles unless something serious is going on in the background. Through Lavoie, that DNA now quietly threads through VanMoof's new chapter.

The new VanMoof S6 and A6 are the first public proof of that shift. A redesigned front hub motor. A simpler, more repairable drivetrain. A display that doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. It's not about showing off. It's about making a bike that can survive the real world and survive the next ten years of its owner.

There's stuff I genuinely can't talk about yet. Prototypes. Sketches. Future things still half-built in foam and code. But I can tell you this: they're not trying to sell hype anymore. That part of VanMoof is over. They're building something quietly, and you can feel it when you walk through that workshop door.

VanMoofer x VanMoof

VanMoofer has collaborated with VanMoof on the rebuild not as an employee, not as an agency, but as a rider who refused to let this story die in a footnote. Because VanMoofer loves design and engineering. But more than that: VanMoofer believes stories should be told from the rider's saddle. Not just from the lab, or the boardroom, or the press-release PDF.

From the road. From the motion. From the moments when design meets reality at 37 km/h in a headwind, on a cobblestone street, with a delivery app ping in your pocket and the light turning yellow.

Because the ride is where truth lives. And that's the ride VanMoofer is here for.

What this means for current owners

If you already ride an S3, X3, S5, or A5, the practical story is simple:

1. Your bike is not obsolete. Service is available again, both through authorised workshops and through the growing network of independent bike shops working with parts.
2. The Moofment app lets S3 and X3 riders connect directly over Bluetooth no servers, no accounts, no reliance on anybody's cloud staying online. It's how the community kept these bikes alive when nothing else would.
3. Parts are becoming available through the rebuilt supply chain, including the tricky ones: e-shifters, motor modules, and the infamous controllers.
4. If you want to move to a new bike, the S6 / A6 generation is the first one designed with repairability in mind from day one.

The slow rebuild is the point

The most telling thing about the new VanMoof isn't what they're shouting about. It's what they're not shouting about. There are no more "we're going to change cycling forever" billboards. No more countdowns. No more hype videos full of drone shots and thumping synths.

Instead, there's a workshop. A door. A team working on real bikes for real riders. That, more than anything else, is why this story gets me. VanMoof nearly died and in nearly dying, it learned what actually mattered. It turns out it wasn't the bravado. It was the bikes, and the people who loved them.

If that sounds quietly optimistic, good. It's supposed to.

One more thing

If this article made you want to ride a VanMoof or come back to one the S6 is where the new chapter really begins. It's the first bike fully designed under the new ownership, and it's the cleanest signal yet that this company has learned from everything.

And if you buy one through the link below, VanMoofer earns a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. That's what keeps this blog independent. No VC money, no ads dressed up as articles just a rider with a keyboard and a few link codes.

Thanks for riding with VanMoofer. And if you were one of the people who held on to their VanMoof through the rough years this one is for you.