POLL: Causes of Ebike Crashes and Consequences?

It would be nice to have a clear list of accidents, to know what the most frequent ones are and what to watch out for.
Could you please list the major crashes and close calls that have had, marking a,b,c:

1a) The reason for the crash.
1b) What happened to your body, the bike, the curb, the tree, etc in the moment.
1c) Description of damage and injuries etc.

1a riding too fast at twighlight in a country track, front wheel dived sideways into a tractor track
1b left the bike over the handlebars, flew arms first for about 4 meters, landed in 5 inch puddle
1c grazed legs.

2a Decided to overtake a Lorry on the inside as there was a pavement, had never overtaken a lorry.
2b The lorry moved and the wheel which was as taller as me came my way
2c Was fortunate, didn't crash.

Crash 1

1a---Water bottle got into the forks while riding. 15 mph.
2a----Over the bars, I was leaning way over at the time, due to under the frame bottle cage location.
3a---Struck right temple on the curb. Helmet smashed but head ok. Both collarbones broken, and much ligament damage. Bones healed fairly fast, but right one needed plate and screws. 3 years ago this spring, and the bones still ache when a front blows through. Most likely looking at about 2 more years till the ligament damage gets much better.

Crash 2

2a---Riding in the dark, with a weaker than usual light, battery low. In the bike lane, a pedestrian wearing all black. Black hat, coat, pants, shoes. Struck the guy with my left shoulder while trying to dive to the right. traveling 27 mph or more.
2b--- Flew over the bars again, this time far enough to clear the curb.
3b--- Broken fender on the bike after a few endo's. A few minor road rashes on my body after a few endo's. Winter, so I was pretty padded.

Crash 3 to infinity.
3a ---Typical dirt crash, to numerous to list. Always for riding too fast for that particular spot. Deep rut, soft sand, loose gravel, take your pick.
3b---Usually over the bars, but occasionally a laydown.
3c---Never much more than roadrash. I've been perfecting this kind of crash since age 6.

On reg bike

1a) doorprize
1b) No damage, wind knocked out of me.
1c) None to me or bike but door on Car bent 180 to meet the front tire.

1a) Front V brake seized.
1b) Greatest American hero impression, Fractured fourth metacarpal
1c) splintered the metacarpal, had to have surgery to put it back together.on reg bike


on ebike
1a) Black ice in a turn early morning in fall, was slowing down to turn off the man road into house.
2B) no damage to me, some scrapes on bike

1a) Made it all the way home black out drunk. Turned too quickly in my back yard. Running a 26 tire on the front and a 24" tire on the back made the wheel flop over too quickly and brought the bike down.
1b) I fell face first into a hard plastic dumpster/trash can. Knocked even more unconscious for how long? Vaugley remember waking up with my bike on top of me, the heat from the halogen keeping me warm in the 20f night.
1c) Bike was fine. I woke up with my sheets covered in blood and confused why. 1" scar between my eyes.

Now I don't ride when drunk.

1. Rode too fast on an electric tricycle, not minding my turns properly.

2. Hit a tree head-on.

3. Trike front fork bend beyond repair (new ones on order), and a couple scrapes here and there.

4. Transfered motor kit to another bike.

More to the point, I would be interested to hear of any accidents due entirely to the power-assist. ie could not have happened on a pedal-only bike.

20,000kms on stand-up e-scooters with a few crashes, but none I would attribute to the electric tech...

tks
Lock

There's the old, wet throttle stuck WOT failure. That will be the day when I have that problem here. Sure wouldn't have a throttle with 48v battery level wires in it in a wet place.

Definitely crash going faster on my dirt ebike, than I tend to on my pedal mtb. But downhill is when you normaly crash a pedaler. you can crash uphill with a motor. For me, faster is crashing at 20 mph. I'm not an x games rider.

More to the point, I would be interested to hear of any accidents due entirely to the power-assist. ie could not have happened on a pedal-only bike.

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I've heard of two situations where a front hub has locked up Lock. Also Justin of ebikes.ca has mentioned that he has had customers who have had wheel lock ups because of controller faults.

dogman said:

There's the old, wet throttle stuck WOT failure.

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Hehe... Ok, I will admit to standing at a Red Light, the scoot standing up on its rear wheel trying to leap out of my hands w/battery box and wiring and on-off switch/charge plug all awash with salt water aka winter slush aka electrolyte... Looking back this was only entertainment `cause the pack was only 240Wh SLA nominal plus no witnesses/pedestrians etc close at hand in the snow/slush storm at the time...
Lock

The only ebike crash I ever had was when I was riding home from the winery about 1 year ago and my front tire blew out on me (a nail I think) I was going about 27mph on my ezip and the bike was squirrelly and out of control and I slid to the ground and had major road rash, but no broken bones. Lesson learned: don't just keep pumping slime into the tire if you have a nail in it..? Duh? I was really busy with harvest and didn't want to fix the tire before I went home mistake!
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

auraslip said:

More to the point, I would be interested to hear of any accidents due entirely to the power-assist. ie could not have happened on a pedal-only bike.

Click to expand...

I've heard of two situations where a front hub has locked up Lock. Also Justin of ebikes.ca has mentioned that he has had customers who have had wheel lock ups because of controller faults.

Click to expand...

Front DD hubs will get outlawed in the US soon enough due to this possibility.

Only with a speed wind motor will you have a fighting chance with such failures in a DD front hub, because their plug braking is inherently less forceful. Even then I would only build using a speed hub in front with a long and low bike that really can't do an endo.

Only a couple of close calls that were E-related, which were all due to grabbing the bike by the throttle.

Only a couple of close calls that were E-related, which were all due to grabbing the bike by the throttle.

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Oooh, I forgot about that one. Trying to impress a crowd of party goers with a little wheelie while I was walking the bike. Don't do that with a thumb throttle because as the bike comes up the thumb throttle goes down farther! I ended up with the bike completely perpendicular with the ground

auraslip said:

Oooh, I forgot about that one. Trying to impress a crowd of party goers with a little wheelie while I was walking the bike. Don't do that with a thumb throttle because as the bike comes up the thumb throttle goes down farther! I ended up with the bike completely perpendicular with the ground

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I learned not to do that at a party even with a normal throttle.

Crash 1

1a) I was slowing down from 25mph in the winter when it was 10*F and at the end of my hill at the stoplight I hit some black ice and I had no rear brakes
1b) I fell over because my front tire locked up on the ice. It was embarrassing everyone was looking at me.
1c) I wasn't running the axle protector and ripped up the wires coming out of my motor. I had a pedal home. No injuries except for my dignity.

Crash 2

2a) I was showing off in front of my house and I slipped on loose gravel turning around too fast at the end of the cul-de-sac
2b) I fell over. I was embarrassed.
2c) I scraped my palm and had trouble playing ping pong. No damage.

Speed was a factor in both incidents, although I was trying very hard to control my speed in the first accident. Both incidents were in low-risk areas; I slow down when there are moving vehicles or people around.

I have not fell/broken my ebike jumping it, but I have bailed a few times and kept it under control.

auraslip said:

I've heard of two situations where a front hub has locked up Lock. Also Justin of ebikes.ca has mentioned that he has had customers who have had wheel lock ups because of controller faults.

Click to expand...

I wonder if these would have been brushed hubs... becoming a rarity these daze w/all "modern" hubs now brushless? Isn't a "locked" failure peculiar to brushed only?

tks
LocK

POTHOLE - Very large Chicago style

Poped the tire tube and bent the rim.


This is why ebikes need to be light as possible

Crash No 1
On my old homebuilt tadpole going about 20 mph downhill rear wheel locked up. Still not sure to this day if it was chain suck into the gears or motor lock but I went sidways and the over landing on my front. Broke 6 ribs and lots of road rash blood and used the trike like a powered wheel chair to get to the ER 1 block away. Needless to say I just used to motor slooooowly as I couldn't see any thing wrong with the trike and that scared me. Retired that trike soon afterward.

"Crash" no 2
On the new Steintrike @54 volts on the same closed course as before I took a corner too wide( read too fast) and my outside wheel caught the lip of the road and sank into soft ground. I was slowed down and very unceremoniously went over into the soft earth on my side still on the trike. A nurse ran over to see if I was OK but Joyce had already stopped laughing and helped me get the trike upright. Only pride injured!

This was about a year ago and I have slowed down and powered down to 36 volts. I now take blood thinners and if i scrape my body I could have some trouble!

Joyce's last big crash
Flat road but she was behind me and tried to stop but caught front wheel of Bike-e on sand and skidded and fell on her knee. Split the skin down to patella (kneecap) facia (covering of bone) and needed 40 some odd stitches. Got her trike soon afterward as she had been crashing often with less dire results before this one. Her balance and reflexes now officially suck so the trike is a godsend!
otherDoc

Hi All

the most important lesson i have learned is the importance of an independent earth for the ebrake

I had two hubs, front and rear...converted the rear to the external infineon 12 Fet controller, but wired up too quickly ( like all of us do)....so im planning on removing front hub
On 25 Mile commute home, i remove front hub connector...rear hub locks on at full voltage, full current ( 48V li-ion) @45 amps......but this time i manage to hold it on a disc brake..ok...think smart...so next time, i go to a grass verge and think, "hey the wheel will spin if it locks on, lets try again"......
well, 18KGS of lithium ion will add a lot of traction to a rear wheel 2000W DD motor...imdragged 10Meters down a grass verge, before the grass verge swallows my front wheel , im over the bars.....

truth is, the earth on hte rear had snapped, the front was the only earth....when the rear earth wire snapped, the throttle locked on at high voltage and the ebrake with no earth no longer worked

so....use a seperate ground for your earth e-brake...if it fails, you have your throttle ground...if that fails, you have your ebrake ground....if both fail, then like me your concorde nose is destined for a re-trim...

after years of no helmet ( and two years of road helmet for kids example) , i now wear a full mtb DH helmet

1a) Going downhill at night around the outside of a curve, so my headlight was facing more away from on-coming traffic than usual. Senior citizen left crossed me.
1b) Made sure to get over the hood and sort of ramped off the windshield as he continued through the turn. After many spins and flips in the air came down between the curb and sidewalk on the other side of the street and bounced along until I ended up in some bushes.
1c)Various road rash, very sore legs, surprisingly minor bruises, some ligament or muscle damage in the shoulder that is occasionally uncomfortable 6 months later.

Crash 1 - Lost front end accelerating on a corner
Simply slide through the intersection, light grazes on me and bike.
This wouldn't have happened if I was on a non-electric bike.

Crash 2 - Freewheel fell off
Stood up on peddles taking off front lights, suddenly pedal drops away from me, I end up on my arse worried about the car behind me not stopping.
Cause was the side plate of the hub motor failure, due to crappy casting/machining/design.

Crash 3 - Car turning in front of me
Cars slowing down due to slow traffic ahead, I went to pass on the gutter side, car suddenly hit the brakes and turned in front of me.
I hit the breaks, did the stoppy, glancing blow on side of car, hit the gutter and went flying. Grazed up my hands, bent front wheel, broke brake lever.
Might not have happened if the car indicated, if I was going at typical bike speeds.

Crash 4 - Too fast through a round about
At normal bike speeds I never slow down for it, but on the ebike it turned into a challenge to se how fast I could go through it.
One day I got it wrong, hit the curb, flew over the handlebars onto grass. Only real damage was to my dignity, and a few bruises.

Summary:
Crappy ebike parts failure more.
eBikes go faster, putting you in danger quicker.

(1) Attempted to ride a wheelie on take-off and flipped the bike out from under me. skinned up my hand and knee (2) hasn't happened yet...

hit the throttle while walking my folded ebike, and rammed myself with the handlebars, then fell over, and RODE OVER MYSELF.

bruises to midsection. severe embarrassment.

no one knew it was an ebike, so it looked like I was doing it to myself like a friggin' idiot.

1a) Front hub with too much power caused head tube to crack and race ahead
1b) Face is now shaped like tire
1c) Bike broke as well