Bike on Fire!

[Waspy]

So this happened recently at one of my job sites.

Story is the owner charged the battery overnight in his kitchen while the bike was left outside.

Battery attached in the morning and bike was ridden to work.

Later that morning owner steps outside and sees his bike on fire.

So from now on no E-bikes are allowed in any building, no mention about batteries mind LOL

Looking at that picture, the kit looks like an eBay 1500w special.

 

[cyclebuddy]

Yes, it does look like a front-wheel "dinner-plate" special. More likely the bike electrics got soaked from being left outside all night; a bit of sloshing around on the cycle to work, and a slow simmer turns to full-on cook whilst standing?

 

[Bonzo Banana]

Need to know more about the controller and battery. It could be a home made battery or maybe a very powerful controller with an inadequate battery for it or just a very powerful home made battery with less than perfect construction. The fire seems to be on the ground so it looks like the battery has come off the bike when it ignited so it maybe a very amateur way of attaching it to the bike.

I'm in two minds about batteries. I can see the benefit of very controlled construction and not being able to repair those batteries for safety but then its such huge waste and many batteries can be simply repaired when only one cell fails.

 

[Nealh]

One suspects many who build batteries do so for the cost but doing so make no or little effort to insulate against shorting or using cell protection.
It would be interesting to know what process he used to maintain cell integity etc,etc.

 

[georgehenry]

Not many do go wrong, and it appears to be the home built cheaper type that feature in the majority recorded, but they are always a sobering sight, as there is a lot of energy stored in these batteries.

 

[Bikes4two]

To us on the forum the cause of the fire has some interest, but to the general public its just another ebike fire with all the negative connotations that go with that.

I'd hazard a guess we'll see more risk averse people/places/organisations looking unfavourable on ebikes.

 

[Waspy]

To us on the forum the cause of the fire has some interest, but to the general public its just another ebike fire with all the negative connotations that go with that.

I'd hazard a guess we'll see more risk averse people/places/organisations looking unfavourable on ebikes.

Yes, true. After this incident my organisation has now issued some draconian rules about ebikes

 

[Waspy]

Some text from the original email :

The bike battery was charged overnight night in the owners kitchen and then the battery was fitted to the bike in the morning which had been outside all night. The individual rode the bike to work and padlocked the bike on arrival. Four hours later the individual came outside to put something in the skip and noticed the bike was on fire. Help immediately arrived and used a CO2 Extinguisher, the bike was still on fire and the battery cells were dropping out of the casing and then exploding. A second CO2 extinguisher was then used, and also a water extinguisher to cool the batteries which were smouldering on the floor which extinguished the fire.

 

[Bikes4two]

There are fires in EV's as there are in petrol cars/vehicles - one wonders if an employer/organisation frowning on ebike fires would/should take a similar approach to cars/vehicles, electric or otherwise? I somehow doubt it.

A Google search on something like 'electric car fires' is a useful exercise to help get ebike fires in perspective. Examples such as that below are but one statistic of interest.

I wonder if Cycling UK or others in the ebike manufactoring/reselling chain are looking into this growing apprehension about ebike fires? Maybe @Woosh or @Wisper Bikes might like to contribute to this thread?

 

[Nealh]

Staff don't park their cars inside the work place unlike e- scooters or ebikes.

 

[Woosh]

Maybe @Woosh or @Wisper Bikes might like to contribute to this thread?

there is not much I can add. Batteries have an inherent risk of fire. All we can do is reduce the risk factors such as storing the bike under shelter, avoid overcharging etc. Batteries don't last forever, think about replacing them after 5 years of use.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

I agree with comments from Woosh.

I would add that the biggest problem seems to come from incompatible chargers. I read a report from LFB recently where the owner had bought a bike from Brick Lane Market in London. (Without a Charger!!!) Then purchased the cheapest possible charger from the internet, guess what happened?

Most issues seem to be charger related.

All the best, David

 

[flecc]

View attachment 50081

As ever such data is misleading and near to useless:

It says most vehicles are almost always completely destroyed by fire, yet only reports 93 of the 507 in London in the last five years were seriously damaged.

How can that be? Well the answer is simple, they are including a complex mix of factors.

The first and most important is not specifying the type of fire. E-cars have two electrical systems. One is nearly identical to that on any ic car, a 12 volt SLA battery running all the usual car electrical systems. These occasionally start a fire on any car, petrol, diesel, hybrid or battery electric. They are the great majority of all car electrical fires.

The second system in an e-car is the traction battery feeding the controller and motor unit via an isolator switch and fuse. Fires in that system are only due to the traction battery and on almost all e-cars are extremely rare. Indeed the majority of those fires occur on just one make of e-car, Tesla, due to that company pushing their battery specifications too far for safety with the inevitable consequence. Information link. Tesla claim differently but the real world evidence doesn't support them.

In a stark comparison, Nissan's Leaf, for a decade the largest selling EV in the world with over 600,000 on the road has never had a single traction battery fire and just one known 12 volt system fire.

Another factor confusing the information given is that it includes hybrids, most of which are very different from BEVs, having only a low power, short range, auxilliary electrical drive system with a correspondingly smaller battery.

And even the Parallel Hybrid buses are classed as BEVs, and they work very differently with both ic and battery drive often working together. The so called Boris Buses have suffered a number of burnouts in London and like their namesake are being phased out of service early.

The public ignorance about EVs is such that it will probably be many years before we get reliably separated and usefully informative data.
.

 

[Ocsid]

Yes, true. After this incident my organisation has now issued some draconian rules about ebikes

Could be they are very exposed to any arising claims, so they and their insurers' take action to minimise that exposure?

 

[guerney]

Could be they are very exposed to any arising claims, so they and their insurers' take action to minimise that exposure?

If insurers hike premiums, we're kinof screwed. Bans will pop up everywhere.

 

[georgehenry]

I think I was lucky to have enjoyed 11 years of ebike commuting prior to my retirement. I was able to charge the batteries of either my rear hub Oxygen emate silverfish battery or my Yamaha Haibike battery in a room at work.

It could be that employers simply put a blanket ban on ebikes/batteries being stored anywhere inside a building at work.

 

[Biker44]

The Chinese are alleged to know all about this problem and have solved it - many/most cycles are charged outside.
It would be a tragedy if robust methods to protect people are not implemented.
See

 

[saneagle]

It's impossible to draw any conclusions from that OP. Through all we know, someone could have set light to it. It was parked in a public place and some people don't like electric bikes, especially illegal ones.

 

[Nealh]

It was parked under a no parking anytime sign , so could be some truth in the suggestion the fire was deliberate.