Back from my secret test ride with the VanMoof S4 and X4, I'm excited to share my thoughts on these bikes that have been making waves in the market.

Comparing VanMoof to Apple is often done due to their similarities in design, but one thing that's always stood out is how the two companies approach pricing. Just like the top-selling iPhone every year isn't the Pro Model with all the bells and whistles, but rather the regular model that sacrifices some features to save money, VanMoof's S4 and X4 are kind of like the iPhone 14s compared to the more premium iPhone 14 Pro. The S4 and X4 get 80% of the way there in terms of performance and features, yet they're still $2,500 cheaper than their Pro counterparts. That's a significant price difference that could make all the difference for consumers who are looking for an affordable e-bike option.

The thing is, VanMoof has famously raised prices over time due to inflation, but when you look closely at the company, it's clear that they've needed emergency funding and have even closed stores. Considering these factors, making the S4 and X4 their cheapest option makes a lot of sense for the company. And while I wouldn't say it's a huge improvement over the original S3 and X3, especially considering the loss of features like the display, the more reliable motor and transmission system are definitely worth it.

One thing that does bother me is that even though this is their cheapest option, it's still $500 over the original price of the S3 and X3 when that first launched. And while I hope that VanMoof won't raise the price on this bike after launch like they did with the S3 and X3, it's clear that prices can fluctuate.

But even with its lower price point, the S4 and X4 are still solid competitors in the market. With a 38% difference in price between the two models, it's worth considering putting them on your short list of bikes to check out within that budget. VanMoof has made a name for themselves with their sleek design and innovative features, and the S4 and X4 continue that tradition.

So, if you're in the market for an affordable e-bike option that still packs a punch, the VanMoof S4 and X4 are definitely worth considering. And as always, I'll leave the best price I could find on these bikes in a link in the description below, so be sure to check it out.

Before I go, I wanted to get one last ride out of the S4 before it's time to give it back. It's been a blast testing this bike out and exploring the city with it. From its sleek design to its impressive range and speed, the S4 has been a joy to ride. And while we've explored many different places and tested many different tech, I have to say that VanMoof is definitely one of my favorite companies to work with.

One thing that stood out during my test ride was how quiet the bike is. As I rode through Greenpoint, which happens to be in the middle of a construction zone today, I could hear the sound of a seaplane taking off and the loud saws from the construction equipment, but the S4's motor remained eerily silent. It's one of those features that you don't even notice until it's gone.

I also appreciated how easy it was to ride the bike through the city. With its impressive range and speed, I was able to navigate through traffic with ease and avoid any congestion. And while it may not be the most stylish bike on the road, the S4 has a certain charm that makes it hard to dislike.

But what really stood out during my test ride was how well the bike holds up in terms of reliability. As I rode through various terrain and conditions, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. The bike performed flawlessly and showed no signs of strain or wear.

Of course, with any bike comes some trade-offs. In this case, one thing that's noticeable is that the display has been removed from the S4, which may be a drawback for some riders. However, I believe that this small sacrifice is well worth it considering the reliability and performance of the bike.

One final note - VanMoof offers a special service called Bike Hunters for $395 per year for three years. This service allows you to have VanMoof's team of experts find and retrieve your stolen bike if it's ever taken. While this may seem like an added expense, I think it's well worth it considering the cost of replacing or repairing a lost or stolen bike.

In conclusion, my time with the VanMoof S4 and X4 has been a blast. These bikes are definitely solid competitors in the market, and their affordable price point makes them a great option for consumers who are looking for an e-bike without breaking the bank. So, be sure to check out the best price I could find on these bikes in the link below, and consider putting them on your short list of bikes to test out.

And with that, it's time to say goodbye to my secret test ride with the VanMoof S4 and X4. I hope you've enjoyed this review, and I'll catch you all in the next video!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enmorning another day another railroad test today we're doing on the new van move S4 the new affordable bike that's going to live alongside the more premium Now S5 and we're gonna kind of explore today while we test out the bike as per the usual but first comes first oh foreign coffee check welcome to Sweet Leaf Coffee Roasters a coffee shop here in the neighborhood of Greenpoint in Brooklyn in New York City and it's actually right next to where my filming studio is and it's a very chill coffee shop with very like local Vibes like the breeze just know the regulars type of thing it's got a good mix match of decor with industrial Vibes they also make two more unique coffee concoctions here that I kind of crave when I come here first being Rocket Fuel which is cold brewed made with chicory Vermont maple syrup and milk and in my opinion it's kind of like a take on a New Orleans or a nola style coffee but lately I've been on a kick getting the Voodoo Child which is a cold brew made of condensed milk and sweet cream so it's a play in like a Vietnamese style coffee and it sounds sweet but honestly the coffee is super strong so it it balances it pretty well okay so the vanmof S4 and X4 let's start with the style and a quick glance you have a hard time knowing that it's not the current S5 or A5 or more accurately the S3 or X3 in fact while riding this bike around before it was announced I was never really worried that anyone was gonna be like oh is that a new bike and sure enough no one better than I we have that same sort of iconic at this point maybe men move straight style frame the same integrated headlight and tail light solid feeling hydraulic brakes comfy seat fenders and very similar front hub motor and that same very minimalistic design that we now expect from the Amsterdam based company which honestly I've always really liked now looking a little closer though you can start to see some changes firstly there is no halo rings that are now how you see information like speed range and pedal assist levels on the 5 series we also don't have the Matrix display like the 3 Series had and we now have two buttons on the handlebars instead of four now there is a boost button on the right we'll get to that in a sec and a bell button on the left there is no button under the Boost button to cycle through the pedal assist settings compared to the 5 series and there's no button under the Bell to flash the light which I actually started to like on the 5 series as a way to like more politely tell people to move or even just tell a card a four-way stop to go ahead you'll notice that the chain can be seen on the 4 Series compared to the five we'll get to y a bit later and you'll notice there are a lot more color options or really there are color options compared to the simply dark or light gray options that the 5 series had we have Evergreen which is what I have here sunbeam yellow purple fog and foam green and we have orange accents and both have the van move logo in orange except the yellow color which actually has black accents it seems honestly the colors are awesome I love a bright colored piece of tech and I think purple might be my favorite personally dark green though is always a good option if you want to be a little less flash now the bike comes in two frames just like the other newer van MILF bikes we have an S and an X like we did on the S3 and the X3 now the S5 deviated slightly by having an A-frame instead of an X but the idea of the two frames is the same the S4 is the more streamlined slightly taller frame recommended for riders that are 170 210 centimeters with larger Wheels versus the X4 which is the slightly lower frame recommended for riders that are 155 to 190 centimeters smaller Wheels is two pounds lighter and has a bungee corded shelf we'll call it in the front now I was given the S frame tomorrow which looks sleeker maybe but the X4 is nice and the added shelf plus the smaller size I might prefer myself but up to you also the X4 compared to the A5 has a good 88 millimeters lower of a standover height just because of how the frame is shaped which would be good for shorter Riders all right we are now at the point of Green Point and this is a park now but back when the Dutch first settled here European Mariners called this area Greenpoint thanks to a grassy Bluff that sat on this side of the East River the Dutch eventually settled here in 1638 and took today's neighborhoods of Greenpoint Williamsburg where I live and Bushwick and called the entire thing Bostwick which roughly means a town in the woods and it's actually how the neighborhood of Bushwick got its anglicized name now back then and for a while it was mostly wooded land and farm but eventually in the mid-1800s this all became known for shipbuilding and what was known as the five placards printing glass and pottery making oil refining and iron Manufacturing in fact the first ironclad warship the monitor was built here now City eventually turned this area into a park in 1942 and has gone through many revamps to get to this point and honestly it's a nice place to just kind of sit and look at Manhattan and watch the boats go by all right while we're here let's talk about the ride now firstly if you're not used to Van move bikes they have Auto shifter so instead of a shifter on the handle they use to change gears up and down like most bikes including a lot of electric ones the bike will go through the gear years for you as you run this alone takes some getting used to but once you do it's actually pretty nice now the 5 series actually has a new Gen 5 version of this system that has three gears and a torque sensor to decide when to shift the gear so basically decides how hard you're pushing the pedals and goes okay you're pushing hard and slow and we have a gear above this so let's switch to that now the Five series with its new system will actually wait for you to come off the pedaling a little and then it'll shift the gear this is compared to the 3 Series which sometimes had some weird gear switches during pedaling that were rare but a little jarring until you kind of got used to those and the new system supposedly solves that now here on the 4 Series though we don't have that torque sensor but instead we have only two gears and it uses the same RPM system to decide when to shift that the S3 has basically when your tire is spinning at a certain speed but it does have a new reworked system that does supposedly avoid those weird gear shifts without the more expensive torque sensor now that combined with the fact that there's only two gears does seem to mitigate that from happening often and frankly the ride it feels smooth now as with all class one and Class 2 bikes here in the US speed while being assisted by the electric motor is limited to 20 miles per hour so what really separates e-bikes is more the torque than the top speed AKA how quickly and smoothly they can get you up to speed now this bike has four levels of power assist five if you include zero which is just off and of course one through four give you just a bit more push with every pedal stroke than whatever level is below it and I have to say it does so very smoothly compared to a lot of other e-bikes which is nice now we also do have the all-important Boost button from the three and the 5 series bikes which is essentially van move's clever way to give you more power while pedaling without giving you a throttle which would force the bike into class too and give it more guidelines for use in some states and especially in the more strict EU regions but basically you hold this button down to get the full torque of the motor for a limited time 59 nanometers on the S4 and X4 which is slightly less than the 68 nanometers of the S5 and A5 it's great for passing people getting going quickly from a stop and just general Shenanigans really it's fun and I overuse it for sure the downsides to using it a lot though of course is says the bike has the same range as their other so 37 miles on the full pedal assist and 87 miles on the lowest pedal assist now for all bikes these numbers don't matter that much they're never really that accurate just because it depends very much on how you ride the bike I do appreciate though that van MILF has given us a range so I would suggest taking the lower end of that range and fitting that into your daily use case as a good Benchmark for your needs and of course most people aren't speed Freaks and just hold down the Boost button like I do the one downside is that there is no removable battery it's removable for maintenance only by Van mof technicians apparently so unlike some bikes where you can park the bike somewhere and then charge the battery inside separately you will need to bring the entire bike in to plug it in and charge it now the bike charges 50 in 1.5 hours and 100 in four and a half according to Van move which is faster than most electric bikes actually so at least there's that thank you okay let's grab a bite and this is glossary it's a lovely Mediterranean spot that opened back in 2013 at the very top of Green Point and Brooklyn for that matter any further really and you're in Queens after that it's on a sort of empty Street and since covet has had this lovely outdoor area now that they've done a great job of building and lighting really the inside is a similar industrial Vibe as the coffee shop we hung out in this morning and it makes sense given that the space was originally a glass factory which surprise is how it got the name glacery the food is Meza style or small plates and it's just great for sharing especially the bread dipped in anything that it comes with from lobda to eggplant to Hummus even beef tartar it's so good speaking of apps let's talk about the van mof app so as mentioned there is no way to change the pedal assist also no way to check the battery either on the bike itself so the app becomes a bit more important but honestly you still get away with not using it at all after your initial setup of the bike if you want you can just leave it on a specific power assist and just don't travel too far between charges we have the same SB connect mount on the handlebars from the 5 series which is a third party who makes these mounts and co-develops them with vanmof for their bikes but you can either buy a phone case from SP connect with this on it and use that to mount the phone or you can buy a universal Mount and just put that on as well like I have here since I will swap phones too often another thing missing from the S5 here is that we don't have a USB port to charge your phone with now personally I'm not riding long enough to care but someone might now in the app We have basically the same features as the S5 so the same pedal assist options as we've discussed headlight on and off but here we don't actually have an option for Auto on and off like we do on the S5 which will have it turn on when it gets dark and off when it's not you have to choose one or the other for the S4 honestly I just leave it on I figure it can't hurt for safety anyway we also have touch unlock which allows you to unlock the bike by just pushing a button on the handlebars when your paired phone is connected and close and you can actually adjust the distance you need it to be for that to trigger I personally set it to as close as possible just in case me you know sitting inside a restaurant like this while the bike is outside counts as close enough and someone can just ride off that if you don't have your phone though you can use the backup code which you input by holding down a button and then it'll give you a sound prompt and you can then tap the button a certain number of times pause you'll get another sound do it again another sound and then do it a final time you set up whatever pattern of pushes you want like one two three for example you can also turn the alarm on and off in the app I always leave this on we'll get to that in a second and you can change the measurement units between kilometers and miles now lastly in here you can track rides and I know so many e-bikes that put these types of features in their apps and honestly it just feels useless I don't know anyone who does not just use Apple Maps or Google Maps when they're riding their bike overall though the app is solid it connects every time unlike some other apps I've used for other e-bikes and the ui's clean and intuitive really also I just have to say it seems really gimmicky at first but I kind of love it now and that's the sounds that this thing makes there's just a fun collection of sounds when you unlock it lock it the fact that you can change the bell sound from a single Bell ding to like a submarine ping to a ding dong type of sound it adds a playfulness that I appreciate on us but that now brings us to something that's as iconic as The Styling on a van move and that's the anti-theft system firstly we have our kick lock which you line up the back hubs lines with the line on the chain guard and tap the button here with your foot and it'll lock the back tire so someone can't just ride off with the bike they now have to pick it up and carry it and this is apparently a Gen 4 lock versus the newer Gen 5 lock on the series 5 but both seem to work very similarly to me once that is engaged though if you have it turned on the alarm is also engaged and if someone tries to move the bike it'll start with a warning that'll progressively get louder until eventually it'll go full temper tantrum and the alarm will start to screaming this also notifies your phone that it's happening of course as well now in the case of this does happen the other bikes have apple find my built in so if you have Apple products you can see it on a map as it passes by other Apple devices as well as has GSM tracking the S4 only has GSM tracking and no find my which is kind of odd but it probably saves them a licensing fee to Apple to use the feature for the bike but instead that GSM tracking essentially uses cell tower to triangulate where the bike is generally which is enough for the bike Hunters to get close enough apparently to then use their close range Bluetooth scanners to find the bike from there bike Hunters by the way is a service that van move offers for 395 dollars for three years and it basically means that if the bike is stolen in that time they will send their bike Hunters out to find it for you repair it if needed and return it and if they can't they'll replace it honestly someone who's had their eBay like stolen and lives in a major city like New York I would automatically buy this with any van MILF bike but I'd also probably buy a proper lock for it anyway now if I had the bike longer and it wasn't a secret test bike maybe we could have let it get stolen and see how that would have worked out maybe that's another video van MILF claims though that they have a 75 recovery rate which is crazy when you think about it and honestly I've seen videos online where thieves recognize the bike by its style and seem to not even Target it because they know the bike and obviously I wouldn't rely on that as some won't and again that bike lock won't really stop anybody for picking up the bike and throwing in the back of the truck okay calling it a night and I just want to kind of wrap up my thoughts about the van move S4 and X4 so firstly venmoth gets compared to apple a lot mostly because of their design but I want to make yet another analogy comparing the two companies the top selling iPhone every year isn't the Pro Models you know the ones with all the bells and whistles it's the regular model that sacrifices some of that to save a bit of money the S4 and X4 are kind of the iPhone 14s and the S5 and the A5 are more like the iPhone 14 pro the 4 Series gets 80 of the way there and yet it's 2500 compared to the 4 000 of the fives here that is a 38 difference in price and if we're honest you probably won't miss much especially considering most people who have not used a 5 Series in the first place I will say that anytime I ever see anybody considering a van move bike the price is always their biggest contention and the thing is the company has famously now raised the prices of their bikes over time citing inflation at one point but when you look closely at the company they've needed emergency see funding they've closed a few stores Etc so not only does a cheaper option just make a lot of sense for the company it might also be something that they really could use now the one thing I will say though real quick that just kind of bothers me a little bit is that even though this is their cheapest option of bike right now it is a good 500 over the original price of the S3 and X3 when that first launched and arguably besides a more reliable motor and transmission system which is definitely important it isn't a big improvement over that bike and it even loses some features like that display but with that said and also hopefully the fact that they won't raise the price on this bike after the launch like they did with the S3 and X3 but also they did with the S5 and the A5 they actually raised it a thousand dollars over what it originally sold for it is still a very solid competitor at that price compared to other bikes around that price and so I would probably recommend putting it on your short list of bikes to check out within that budget and there you go hope you guys enjoyed that let me know in the comments below what you thought of the video what you think of the bike always appreciate hearing from you guys if you're not already subscribe please do so and ding the Bell next to the word subscribe so you get notified whenever I do new videos also you can check out the rest of the real world test series I do these a lot and we have explored a lot of different places while testing a lot of different Tech so check that out if you're interested as always I will leave the best price that I could find on the van MILF S4 and X4 in a link in the description below and I will try to update that regularly but now I'm gonna get one last ride out of the S4 before I gotta give it back so good night I've been out of kick of getting truck I'm in the middle of a construction zone that's where I am nope there's a seaplane taking off how you ride that is a loud saw right now all of Greenpoint is a construction zone right now apparently today only perfect which is faster\n"