It's every e-bike rider's worst nightmare - and for this lucky cyclist in South Australia it could have been much worse, as he managed to escape serious injury when the battery of an aftermarket system fitted to his Pinarello Dogma F8 bike exploded, sending flames shooting 10 feet into the air.
The incident, on Corkscrew Road, Montacute - a climb that features each year in the Tour Down Under, meaning it will have been particularly popular with amateur riders this weekend - also started a scrub fire by the roadside that spread 30 metres. Fortunately, a fire crew attending a separate incident nearby were able to extinguish the flames despite the hazards posed by the exploding lithium battery as well as CO2 canisters in the rider’s saddlebag, which one witness said were acting “like bloody bullets.” Watch the clip below to see the carnage, and how lucky the cyclist was to escape relatively unharmed...
An electric bike has exploded into flames at Montacute, burning its elderly rider and sparking a dangerous scrub fire. @EdwardGodfrey9 #9News pic.twitter.com/IsuZ2C5ctX
— Nine News Adelaide (@9NewsAdel) January 14, 2019
Our advice on choosing the right e-bike products.
Obviously we don't want this to happen to you, and neither do you! 99.999% of the time e-bikes are a healthy, safe and environmentally-friendly way to travel, and there's a few things you can do to protect yourself against potentially dangerous products, as Dave explains: “There are a lot of aftermarket e-bike kits readily available in the UK, some of which are legal for use on UK roads and some which are not: if it's over 250W, has a throttle instead of being pedal-assist, or doesn't have a speed sensor to cut the motor above 25km/h, it's not legal.
"When you're buying direct and cheap you're putting yourself at the mercy of a manufacturer's quality control, and it's often difficult to know what the build quality of a system is even after it arrives. Lithium-Ion e-bike batteries are generally made up of an array of smaller cells, usually 18650 cells of which you need around 40 for a standard e-bike battery. They're well-known for being flammable if they short-circuit or if there's a weak point in the system where heat can build up, and it's not only budget manufacturers that have issues: look at Samsung's problems with the Galaxy Note in 2016.
“But the lower the price, the more you can expect corners to have been cut. Our advice would be to choose carefully, and not just to go for the cheapest system you can find. If you do want an inexpensive e-bike then there are manufacturers of both full bikes (B'Twin, Cyclotricity, Powacycle) and retrofit kits (Panda, Dillinger, Woosh) that will back up their bikes or systems with a full UK warranty.”
So there you have it... buy from a reputable source, and stay safe out there!
