Aussie ebike battery goes up in flames

PRW

100 kW
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Melbourne, Australia
news article this morning - "home made electric bike explodes on street"
http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/melbourne-mans-home-made-electric-bike-explodes-on-street/news-story/1ecb3f18eb29c8230db025dc82371b06
video included with article
 
Predictably sensational, it's hardly worth bringing to our attention.
First off, obviously it didn't "explode", it caught on fire.
Although the article lacks any kind of detail, they seem to imply the fire was the result of his buying a substandard product.
But who knows how that guy put it together. people do some stupid things.
 
um... some people might find it interesting. I don't pre-judge what people want to read.

You notice, I don't comment, other than post - else all the judgemental creatures come out to play.
 
I think anything that could dissuade someone from riding around with a cheap battery is worth posting here.

This is about the best outcome possible, he didn't even cook his bike, let alone his house or his nards.
 
I Love news.com.AU, They sensationalize everything. There was a story linked on that page about a Extreme and Severe security compromise of information on Military Planes, ships, and bombs including the F35 that was stolen off a computer network....
And near the end of the story they mention that the information stolen wasn't actually classified, just commercially sensitive.

In the U.S., this might not even make the news if you lit the battery on fire and tossed it through the window of the local news office.
Unless Trump tweeted about it.
 
Yep. Batteries do catch fire sometimes, for various reasons. Most of the time it is user’s fault. A guy here set fire twice to his Headways battery pack, one of the safest that there is. I recall he drilled a screw in his battery box to fit something on it, and he shorted the battery mounting hardware because the screw was too long. I mean, some will burn any battery, while some others can get away with daily abuse of the most dangerous chemistries.

It is not any better with gas, and most of the time even worse. My neighbour once had a car dripping gas in his driveway for months. It ended up burned on a highway.
 
motomech said:
Predictably sensational, it's hardly worth bringing to our attention.
First off, obviously it didn't "explode", it caught on fire.
Although the article lacks any kind of detail, they seem to imply the fire was the result of his buying a substandard product.
But who knows how that guy put it together. people do some stupid things.

I watched the video. There were explosions after the fire got going good.

And yes, a great case of confirmation bias on the "you get what you pay for" theme.
 
FROM THE ARTICLE: The 32-year-old electrical apprentice told news.com.au he had converted his push bike into an electric bike after getting “a cheap Chinese kit online”.

Cheap parts assembled by the aprentice.... :roll:

they claim an electric motorbike can cost "upto $4000" hahaha my converted downhill bike cost more than that.
 
It's still something that's serious to the ebike community and it would be great to know the exact cause. Unfortunately, most battery fires totally destroy their own evidence so it's nearly impossible to tell in most cases.
 
Phew!! that was hectic! (Victorian's :mrgreen:)

Drunkskunk said:
In the U.S., this might not even make the news if you lit the battery on fire and tossed it through the window of the local news office.
Unless Trump tweeted about it.

Makes me think there may be some anti electric vehicle campagning going on, there some very backwards thinking folk here or a quet day being a reporter
 
fechter said:
It's still something that's serious to the ebike community and it would be great to know the exact cause. Unfortunately, most battery fires totally destroy their own evidence so it's nearly impossible to tell in most cases.

I agree. Looked like a plastic case dolphin or shark battery. He pulled it out of the cradle and threw it on the ground.

Probably 90-95% of all ebike batteries are made in China. Buying from a US vendor doesn't necessarily make it better.
 
dingoEsride said:
Makes me think there may be some anti electric vehicle campagning going on, there some very backwards thinking folk here or a quet day being a reporter

Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
 
billvon said:
dingoEsride said:
Makes me think there may be some anti electric vehicle campagning going on, there some very backwards thinking folk here or a quet day being a reporter

Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Not the Ebikers stupidity was my point but that it reached any media reporting, but then any attention to stupidity is valid
 
That battery smoldered, possibly when something inside shorted. then it started to burn,, but at the end when the adjacent cells started popping off, I sure as hell would call that an exploding battery.

Exactly the same sound I was hearing from my garage, as I stood there buck naked calling the fire department. 18650's exploding.

Some goofball rides up to the front of your house, throws something burning on your sidewalk, which then starts making noises that sound a lot like gunfire..... :shock: Yeah, takes a real idiot to suspect some kind of attack. :roll: How the hell does that guy in the house know its just an e bike battery,,, unless he stood there buck naked dialing 911 when his bike burned his house, and knows that sound all too well.

All that guy knew, was something was exploding on his front sidewalk. He did not know it was just another e bike goofball.
 
I reckon that was a pretty decent fire/set of explosions. Its a shame the video quality is so crappy, I bet the source record was better quality, maybe he will upload it to youtube, it would get some hits.

I think there is a good chance he bought a battery pack meant for a 250w kit and put it on a 1500W kit/motor.
So when he tried to pull 500W+ on it the cells overheated and exploded like a short, this seems to be the storey behind a lot of electric hoverboard fires from last year as a lot of the people who rode them for a few minutes then recorded the fire appeared to be on the heavy side (at least compared to the average Chinese person) and thus the hoverboard was overworked, drew too many watts and caused the poorly built battery pack to overheat and burst into flames.
 
Nothing is ever 100% one cause but i thought Most of the semi-official investigations into the Hoverboard fires seemed to blame poor battery installation (loose battery).. and wireing that caused shorts when the boards were treated roughly or smashed into walls etc.
Some of the fires did not manefest until the battery was charged again, but the root cause was physical damage to wireing insulation.
 
Because of it going off during the ride, my bet is on a wire short in the pack. Also my bet on most hoverboard problems. You wanna battery fire, drop your pack on the ground a few times, or throw it at a wall.

A bms would have prevented the kind of over current that could set off a naked pack. Not that he did not pick a tiny battery for a 40 amps kit, I'm just saying the result would be huge sag and low range, followed by an early death, rather than fire in that case.
 
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