Taking e-Bike on plane

flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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Interestingly you can take a mobility scooter on a plane. Ryanair accept batteries up to 300 watts.
They are normally lead-acid batteries though, very safe and no ban on them. It's lithium batteries that are the problem, a long history of spontaneous fires and explosions, including ripping a hole in the fuselage of one plane:

 

Fat Rat

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Jun 7, 2018
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They are normally lead-acid batteries though, very safe and no ban on them. It's lithium batteries that are the problem, a long history of spontaneous fires and explosions, including ripping a hole in the fuselage of one plane:

Bloody hell thats beyond nasty :(
 
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Martin56

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Feb 9, 2017
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Good point. It is interesting though that lithium batteries are used in spacecraft. Also they are starting to take over in mobility scooters.
 

flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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Good point. It is interesting though that lithium batteries are used in spacecraft. Also they are starting to take over in mobility scooters.
Those in spacecraft or very low stressed, being seven times the capacity needed in order to make them last ten years minimum with at least 3700 daily charges. They have charge cutoff far below truly full and only discharge a fraction of their content between daily solar charges. It's lithium battery heaven.

That's battery life we could only dream of, but of course we use batteries only just big enough and stress them with high discharge rates. Battery hell.
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Martin56

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Feb 9, 2017
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Ligo on the right lines but it seems that a battery which would satisfy an airline would be fairly useless on a bike.
Found this elsewhere: "I must admit that I have answered “dry cell” when I am asked on numerous occasions about the type of battery in my mobility scooter at airports. I always got the impression that if a lithium-ion battery is mentioned sirens would sound and I would be escorted from the airport!"
Makes one wonder.
 

flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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Found this elsewhere: "I must admit that I have answered “dry cell” when I am asked on numerous occasions about the type of battery in my mobility scooter at airports. I always got the impression that if a lithium-ion battery is mentioned sirens would sound and I would be escorted from the airport!"
Makes one wonder.
I'm sure once they twig that mobility scooters now sometimes have lithium batteries they'll get much tougher. Lithium batteries large enough for traction use are definitely out for transport on any passenger aircraft. I believe some courier freight aircraft will carry the batteries in special containers, but I don't know the details.
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tommie

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Mar 13, 2013
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IMG_20150618_161715.jpg

This was carried by air with FedEx from China as part of my BBS kit.

A `11.1v 5500MaH`?

No, it`s really a 48v 13Ah battery

The chinese playing fast and loose with the air regs with a deceptive label

There`s 45 or so 18650 cells in there and it only takes one to go faulty,,,,
and that polystyrene and cardboard box won`t give you much protection at 30,000feet.
 
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flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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I had a 36 volt 10 Ah battery flown to me from China by DHL, with no declaration of any sort on the vestigial cardboard box it was in. The lack of protection was such that the case was seriously cracked at some point en route:

 

Kudoscycles

Official Trade Member
Apr 15, 2011
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Just to warn you guys that Amazon were fined euro 20,000 for incorrect labelling on watch batteries that were delivered by air.
So playing games with incorrect labelling is not worth the risk.
I was in the queue at Guangzhou airport ,the guy in front had some form of battery booster that exceeded the limit,he had to take it away to some special location and had to pay for its disposal,as well as losing the product. He tried to argue but the airport police were quite firm,any more arguing and being banned from flying would have been the least of his problems!!!!
No excuse there are big signs telling you the limits.
KudosDave
 
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