"E-bikes to be banned by employers after dozens of battery fires

TfL, NHS trusts and other organisations say they do not want the machines parked or charged on site

 

TfL’s ban, which could take effect by autumn, would also stop members of the public taking e-bikes on London Overground trains, which carried 157 million passengers in 2023, and presently allow all bikes to be carried on board. TfL sources suggested that an exemption for foldable Brompton bikes, which are manufactured in Britain under strict regulations, might be considered. "

 

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/transport/article/e-bikes-to-be-banned-by-employers-after-dozens-of-battery-fires-zb62vbkpq

Another pay wall.....

Another pay wall.....

 

I can see three paragraphs with Javascipt disabled by an addon for Firefox.

 

I expect there will be more about this on other news websites, which will be of interest to many hissed off non-Brompton owners.

 

This ban expanding beyond London trains would nix my travel plans. I avoid London because it's full of cnuts. Even people who only live in London for a short time become cnuts. Banning all ebikes on trains which aren't Bromptons, is a cnutty thing to do.

I can confirm that mostly London is full of cnts having commuted there for 20+ yrs until Covid hit.

 

TFL have what 2000 ebikes for hire in London, so you can hire one but cannot take it to work if you work for them or take it on any of their trains?

 

Fkin idiots...the lot of them...

 

 

This is from Chrome developer tools, it's all it downloads unless you sign-in then page reloads with full article (I assume...maybe that is full article...)

 

Companies and organisations including Transport for London (TfL) are preparing to ban staff from bringing e-bikes to work after a surge in serious fires caused by faulty batteries.

 

TfL’s ban, which could take effect by autumn, would also stop members of the public taking e-bikes on London Overground trains, which carried 157 million passengers in 2023, and presently allow all bikes to be carried on board. TfL sources suggested that an exemption for foldable Brompton bikes, which are manufactured in Britain under strict regulations, might be considered.

 

Workplace restrictions on e-bikes, which cost from £600 to as much as £10,000, could make them less attractive for commuters if they are not easily able to park them securely during the working day.

This is from Chrome developer tools, it's all it downloads unless you sign-in then page reloads with full article (I assume...maybe that is full article...)

 

I reckon it's a Dark Pattern engineered to make you assume there's more, only to discover there isn't after you've paid.

Indeed, another example of London base cntery...

Makes me wonder if they are going to ban electric cars as well?

TfL’s ban, which could take effect by autumn

 

You lot are neurotic, nothing has happened yet and may never happen.

.

Wouldn't suprise me if insurance companies are using the advent of rapidly increasing sales of ebikes and battery fires to price gouge with new eye watering high premiums, and as they do, pressure for bans will only increase... which is a tragedy for affordable green travel and clean air in the UK... poisoning other parts of the world with mining etc. operations to make said batteries in the process, which will poison us here. The optics of a battery fire occurring can lead to financial losses by association. Over the past few months we've seen landlords banning ebikes, escooters being banned on trains. At this rate ebikes might become relegated to leisure only, for people with cars to transport their ebikes with, not for travelling to work or to do a spot of shopping. Therefore I don't believe it's not within the realm of bounded impossibility there will be nationwide ebike train bans in future. Unbounded impossibility, I cannot speculate upon right now.

Edited July 25, 20241 yr by guerney

Potential ban on public transport does not surprise me at all. Most of e-bike users are skinned and with no insurance and potential damage could be huge.

 

Employers should provide alternative and safe storage though (which could be done at relatively low cost)

Simple solution, remove the battery when arriving at work and take it in with you and fast charge it under your desk/workstation under a cover of flammable materials with an ali express special deal charger. resulting in a zero chance of your bike catching fire..

Simple solution, remove the battery when arriving at work and take it in with you and fast charge it under your desk/workstation under a cover of flammable materials

 

You didn't really think it through, did you? I keep my battery right behind photocopier. This way if anything goes wrong I can deny everything. After all photocopiers are very dangerous and prone to spontaneous combustion. Everybody knows that.

Edited July 25, 20241 yr by Az.

Simple solution, remove the battery

 

That's my plan - a battery in my rucksack is a large power bank carried in harmless luggage for my laptop. No battery: not an electric bike, you'll never take me alive copper!

 

I've been meaning to buy or make a small user assignable temperature triggered alarm to fix to the battery case... Perhaps I can rehouse the stc-1000 circuitboard into a smaller enclosure, epoxy it on? If there's no opening window to fling the battery out... if something horrible happens on the train, alarm goes off - break window using the hammer provided for emergencies, and fling it out? Or chuck the battery into the loo, close the fart-tight door; buy us passengers time? But not into the toilet basin. Or angle grind through the rubber between carriages to chuck the battery through? I'll break a window if necessary.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/196221200253

 

Dimension:79mm *43mm*26mm

Perhaps we should blame the people using cheap crap batteries and conversions how many KNOWN, reputable bikes have there been fires with ?

Perhaps we should blame the people using cheap crap batteries and conversions

 

No, we can't as person should be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

 

how many KNOWN, reputable bikes have there been fires with ?

 

We don't know how many as

a) there is no such thing as reputable bike and

b) we haven't seen even a single properly investigated case of a battery fire.

Edited July 25, 20241 yr by Az.

This is going to be interesting. Most, but not all, ebikes have removable batteries. The owners will need to charge the batteries wherever the ebike is stored (away from the premises). They're going to remove the battery and charge it in their flat or at work. At least that'll stop the bikes from burning when the building goes up in flames.

TFL have what 2000 ebikes for hire in London, so you can hire one but cannot take it to work if you work for them or take it on any of their trains?

 

You just didn't think this through before criticising.

 

These hire bikes have to be left at their official stations where they get charged, so although one can ride to work leaving the bike at one of those nearby, you wouldn't be taking it into work all day long and paying dear for that.

 

And they are so called "last mile" transport, not something you'd take onto a train to go further afield where there are no charging stations for them to end your hire charge period.

 

So they aren't idiots after all are they? They've thought it through.

.

There do seem to be a lot of battery fires, but is that because they are "news"? - How do they compare with, say, fires started by discarded cigarettes or faulty tumble driers?

 

It would be interesting if battery fires could be split into categories -

1) Big-name branded batteries (Bosch, Fazua etc.)

2) Quality Chinese batteries from reputable UK suppliers.

3) Cheapo Chinese batteries from Ali, Ebay, Amazon etc.

4) Home-build batteries *

 

* Home-build batteries will be very variable, with some built by experts and other by people without much - if any - knowledge but just wanting to save some cash.

Earlier in the week I bumped into a couple I know at the local supermarket. She spotted my handlebar display and said, 'Is that electric? Ooo they're really dangerous' taking a step back as she did so.

Turns out they have a son who's a fireman in the london brigade. He's obviously told them tales of woe resulting in the illinformed view that all bikes are about to burst into flames. There seemed to be the view that this mysteriously happens spontaneously, and then the fire can't be put out.

Are these fires being fully investigated? If so are the results actually published? if they are I suppose the press just ignore what's said in favour of more sensationalist memes.

These fires make headlines and front pages. How many petrol fires go unremarked?

Earlier in the week I bumped into a couple I know at the local supermarket. She spotted my handlebar display and said, 'Is that electric? Ooo they're really dangerous' taking a step back as she did so.

Turns out they have a son who's a fireman in the london brigade. He's obviously told them tales of woe resulting in the illinformed view that all bikes are about to burst into flames. There seemed to be the view that this mysteriously happens spontaneously, and then the fire can't be put out.

Are these fires being fully investigated? If so are the results actually published? if they are I suppose the press just ignore what's said in favour of more sensationalist memes.

These fires make headlines and front pages. How many petrol fires go unremarked?

 

We've long had a problem with the newspaper industry, but now we have added an additional media mad age of our own creation since the 1990s.

 

Since then, a formerly powerless public have all gained an unstoppable, uncontrolled media voice through the internet, so like any power without regulation, it is being widely abused.

 

Probably the best answer is to ignore all of it.

.

Earlier in the week I bumped into a couple I know at the local supermarket. She spotted my handlebar display and said, 'Is that electric? Ooo they're really dangerous' taking a step back as she did so.

I used to get this all the time from one of my neighbours and I eventually grew bored of attempting to educate him. Nowadays I tell him something along the lines of “Yes, very dangerous. This bike could burst into flames at any moment. As if that wasn’t bad enough, there’s also the electrocution risk. You wouldn’t want to be caught riding in the rain. Not only could this bike kill you, it’ll hurt the entire time you’re dying. Best keep away really.”

 

Haven’t spoken to him for a while now...

There do seem to be a lot of battery fires, but is that because they are "news"? - How do they compare with, say, fires started by discarded cigarettes or faulty tumble driers?

 

It would be interesting if battery fires could be split into categories -

1) Big-name branded batteries (Bosch, Fazua etc.)

2) Quality Chinese batteries from reputable UK suppliers.

3) Cheapo Chinese batteries from Ali, Ebay, Amazon etc.

4) Home-build batteries *

 

* Home-build batteries will be very variable, with some built by experts and other by people without much - if any - knowledge but just wanting to save some cash.

There are two aspects to such fire: 1. How likely they are to happen; 2: How serious they are when they do happen.

 

The problem with a lithium battery fire is that it flares like a flame thrower, but at temperatures of up to 2000deg, and the single cells explode out and burn some distance from the main fire. That gives it every chance to set light to everything around it and burn stuff that wouldn't normally catch fire. On the other hand 99 out of 100 cigarette fires probably self-extinguish in minutes or seconds.

 

In other words, the reason people are panicking about lithium battery fires is because they have a nasty habit of burning buildings down and killing people, even though they're not that common. In reality, a lot more people are killed by cars or stabbed, but nobody seems to be panicking about that.

a lot more people are killed by cars or stabbed, but nobody seems to be panicking about that.

 

In fairness that's not historically true. Over my lifetime [over 80 years] I have seen a lot of development in reducing car deaths, both in technical advancements and in statutory actions. including mandating the inclusion of some of the former.

 

I do feel there is going to be some similar actions mandated to Lithium battery based kit, both in what can be sold and what/how it can legally be used. Here like domestic storage of petrol for example, the risks associated with such high energy storage does not go pass without finally being noticed.

Though just as with cars, petrol storage & so much else there will be those who operate outside of laws

In fairness that's not historically true. Over my lifetime [over 80 years] I have seen a lot of development in reducing car deaths, both in technical advancements and in statutory actions. including mandating the inclusion of some of the former.

 

I do feel there is going to be some similar actions mandated to Lithium battery based kit, both in what can be sold and what/how it can legally be used. Here like domestic storage of petrol for example, the risks associated with such high energy storage does not go pass without finally being noticed.

Though just as with cars, petrol storage & so much else there will be those who operate outside of laws

I'm referring to the panic and hysteria about batteries, not the careful thought on how things can be improved over a 20 year period.

These hire bikes have to be left at their official stations where they get charged, so although one can ride to work leaving the bike at one of those nearby, you wouldn't be taking it into work all day long and paying dear for that.

 

A choice to hire for the day would suit me better so I can go for a ride at lunch then cycle around the parks or wherever takes my fancy in the evening then dump it back near hotel or restaurant.

 

 

And they are so called "last mile" transport, not something you'd take onto a train to go further afield where there are no charging stations for them to end your hire charge period.

 

If you're cycling across London as a commute then yes I may well want to jump on an overland train, for example Camden to South Clapham or Shepherd's Bush to Stratford. You still have to walk distance to get bike then return it somewhere again not necessarily near where you are actually going. I would prefer 'last 200ft' transport approach...

 

I'm in London week after next, staying on Edgeware Road going to Harbour Exchange at South Quay, Canary Wharf. Last time I was down the bike station at the underpass was closed so I jumped on tube. I will check out the situation when down and maybe enjoy taking one on train before they ban it.

 

 

So they aren't idiots after all are they? They've thought it through.

 

Having worked for consultancies in London past 20+yrs and have worked on multiple TFL projects can confirm that sure not all of them are idiots. However it's their 'partners' (Cap, Eviden, TCS, HCL Axon etc.) that 'thought it through' for them ...for 7/8 figure sums...