Electric bike catches fire in Newport Beach

[mtnbikej]

Here is a fear that never crossed my mind.....at least it was at the beach and not out in one of the parks.....


http://www.ocregister.com/articles/fire-747074-halphide-bike.html

Electric bike catches fire in Newport Beach

Newport Beach Fire Department officials suspect that a faulty battery may have sparked a blaze Sunday that destroyed an electric bike. (Photo courtesy of Newport Beach Lifeguards)


NEWPORT BEACH – An electric bike caught fire Sunday, shooting battery parts as it burned, authorities said.

The incident was reported around 4:30 p.m. at the end of an access ramp on 18th Street.

A man and woman had parked their newly purchased electric bikes on the beach and were sitting next to them when the battery on one of the bikes malfunctioned, said Mike Halphide, lifeguard battalion chief for the Newport Beach Fire Department.

“Lifeguards on scene reported that the battery was popping and sending projectiles dozens of yards from the fire,” Halphide said. “It’s something I’ve never seen before.”

The couple were not injured and firefighters used a dry chemical to extinguish the blaze. One bike was destroyed and the other was damaged, he said.

The couple bought the bikes, that each cost about $2,500, last week, Halphide said.

“I hope they get their money back,” he added.

 

[Faust29]

Don't worry @Mikie. I'll be your alibi!

 

[Runs with Scissors]

Shades of Hoverboards!

Let this be a lesson to all primates who think the easy way is necessarily the best way.

 

[Danmtchl]

That looks like a Pedego.

 

[rossage]

Bring some hot dogs to your next E-mtb ride!

 

[sir crashalot]

thats always been one of my concerns about ebikes out on the trails. Its probabaly one of the reasons theyre illegal in oc county parks and CNF singletracks.

 

[mike]

More is less.

 

[herzalot]

YAY!!!!!

Gonna be a huge problem when it happens in the brush during fire season though.

 

[Robbie]

So far anything that uses lithium ion batteries has been prone to fierce spontaneous combustion:
Boeing 787 airliner
Tesla automobiles
iphones
Samsung S7
hoverboards
e-bikes
I think e-cigarettes using same technology also blow up in peoples faces and pockets .

Surprisingly e-bikes are allowed in CA state parks (Chino hills). I see people using them at Aliso Woods and Santiago Oaks. If they are illegal, no one seems to know or care.

 

[MattB]

Wow! That would have been so much worse if it had happened pretty much anywhere else ... in a garage, next to a building, surrounded by acres of brush/trees in a park or forest.

 

[Rumpled]

Saw a lot of things when I guarded there, but not a bike fire!
Looks like my old college teammate Halphide still has a good gig there.

 

[SnakeCharmer]

Lol, I love it. First it was cell phones. Now its electric bikes. Burn, baby burn!!!

 

[Rumpled]

Oh, almost forgot - anyone see the wireless headphones explode on some poor woman's face?
And, I just bought some real cheap ones!
Seems like all the new Li-ion applications have issues.

 

[Mikie]

Ha ha ha ha haaaahhhhhh!

 

[tortoise]

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

 

[rossage]

All riders of electric motor-driven cycles must now carry fire extinguishers due to the fire hazard created by the batteries.

CA State bill 4.20, proposed by Lego-assemblyman Rossage.
MaCAGA! (Make CA great again)

 

[H2oChick]

That was my focus point when I communicated with OC Parks. It will only take one bad "cell" to start a fire.

 

[Mikie]

 

[sir crashalot]

and if anyones home burns due to a wildfire started by an ebike, sue the s#$t out of the parks for allowing/not enforcing, the owner of said bike, and manufacturere of said bike

 

[rossage]

Let the litigating begin! Let's get this to the courts before all the restraining orders hit.
I'm all for LGBT-Ebikers rights but they gotta carry their own fire extinguishers!

 

[skyungjae]

It wasn't me. Thanks for checking in guys.

 

[sir crashalot]

during a SA wind event, a fire extigisher wouldnt do s#!t.

 

[knucklebuster]

Wow seems like allot of loathing and fear of bikes with a battery, or in this case laughs and "yay"s celebrating a beach cruiser with an electric motor catching on fire. At least it was on a legal bike path not bothering anyone, and no one (esp our own @skyungjae !) got hurt.

You all that ride at night, any concern for your lights catching on fire, since they may be powered by li-ion batteries? I never really kept tabs of why the various contraptions with Li-ion batteries have been catching on fire, so maybe lights aren't susceptible, but if a tablet or headphones can, who knows. So many batteries everywhere, can't get away from them

 

[sir crashalot]

Also, how hot do our brake rotors get?

 

[mtnbikej]

Also, how hot do our brake rotors get?

No matter how hot the rotors get, they do not put off a flame.

 

[skyungjae]

No matter how hot the rotors get, they do not put off a flame.

I wonder if these could start a brush fire.

 

[Rumpled]

Wow seems like allot of loathing and fear of bikes with a battery, or in this case laughs and "yay"s celebrating a beach cruiser with an electric motor catching on fire. At least it was on a legal bike path not bothering anyone, and no one (esp our own @skyungjae !) got hurt.

You all that ride at night, any concern for your lights catching on fire, since they may be powered by li-ion batteries? I never really kept tabs of why the various contraptions with Li-ion batteries have been catching on fire, so maybe lights aren't susceptible, but if a tablet or headphones can, who knows. So many batteries everywhere, can't get away from them

Uh, Magicshine?

 

[knucklebuster]

wonder if these could start a brush fire.

Probably they could, but wonder what they had to do to get them that hot... i.e super long consistently steep downhill on pavement or maybe pulled behind a car? Probably not something duplicated in every day mountainbiking.

Just a side story that doesn't have much to do with bikes... in the distant past I was a product support engineer for a import car company. Had a report from a dealer of brake fade and smell on one of the vehicle models. So we took one of our test fleet vehicles out on Barranca by the train station before there was anything there, including stoplights. We did 6-7 full out panic stops from 60mph, brakes were starting to fade. We got out to take a look and the pads were on fire and rotors were bright red. Fire went out as soon as we started moving again. It was complicated to fix.. there were numerous factors, pad material, brake bias front to rear, tire pattern and grip, weight of vehicle and brake booster size etc.

 

[BigTex]

Not an isolated incident ... an eMTB did the same thing in my neighborhood last week. Didn't see it myself, but a friend saw it and posted video on fb and my wife saw the aftermath. Guy was riding along through an intersection when the bike exploded underneath him, and the bike continued to spit sparks and flame for quite a while after. If it had been on a singletrack trail on a breezy August day, the fire would have been out of control in seconds. I used to think these things should only be allowed where motorized bikes are allowed, but now I'm beginning to think they shouldn't be allowed off streets (I can think of a lot of paved bike paths bordered by heavy brush). At least the motorcycles have spark arrestors.

I'm guessing this is a problem only with the lower-end products, but I saw a nameless eMTB on my local trails the other day, so people aren't only riding Specialized Turbos etc. Can't exactly post signs that say: "No e-bikes permitted unless built by Specialized or Trek."

As far as the Li-Ion batteries in lights ... even if they experience catastrophic failure, they're not going to put out flames like these combusting bikes are doing.

 

[Rumpled]

Probably they could, but wonder what they had to do to get them that hot... i.e super long consistently steep downhill on pavement or maybe pulled behind a car? Probably not something duplicated in every day mountainbiking.

Just a side story that doesn't have much to do with bikes... in the distant past I was a product support engineer for a import car company. Had a report from a dealer of brake fade and smell on one of the vehicle models. So we took one of our test fleet vehicles out on Barranca by the train station before there was anything there, including stoplights. We did 6-7 full out panic stops from 60mph, brakes were starting to fade. We got out to take a look and the pads were on fire and rotors were bright red. Fire went out as soon as we started moving again. It was complicated to fix.. there were numerous factors, pad material, brake bias front to rear, tire pattern and grip, weight of vehicle and brake booster size etc.

Just like watching F1 races with brakes on fire! (But, basically the brakes were too small for the car, right?)