2old

GOOD NEWS (IMO)! One of the class action suits against Rad (the one that claimed their fork was defective) has been dropped.

spdntrxi

they should not sell ones without.

fooferdoggie 

it would be nice but this is the US so its hard to do.

unterhausen

I have wondered if the bike that was overloaded on a steep downhill with the two girls actually had a problem with the QR. It's not a given that a QR will let loose, my gravel bike has a front QR and I have had no evidence of shifting wheel. But I only use QR's that are relatively expensive vs. what comes on a radpower. If I had a radpower, I would put a DT Swiss rws or equivalent on the front. Near zero chance of problems.

The whole thing about batteries was bound to come up eventually. It's a real annoyance right now. For example, it would be fun to go on a tour with my wife and her ebike on rail trails, but are hotels going to let us charge her bike in the room? I can foresee problems. I feel like her bike would be ul listed now, but maybe Shimano Steps wasn't listed when we bought it.

2old

I would trust a Shimano battery (or a battery on any of the large OEM offerings, and do with my Yamaha system), but charge it in a safe place or when I'm nearby. My opinion on hotels is what they don't know..., although we've never taken an "e" on any trip (always MTB's).

Smaug1

There are three UL standards relating to eBikes: one for the battery packs, one for the chargers and one for the eBike power system. I think the battery one is most critical, but it's nice to have another set of eyes on the eBike power system too. Chargers, since they plug into line voltage AC, were already required to be 3rd party certified.

Alan K

Lucky us!

Alan K

Ebike sales are on their early phase of increase at this point. Based on their apparent popularity (even my wife wants one and she is usually not that keen about riding bicycles), my guess is that their sales will increase exponentially for a few years. Any company whose reputation is tarnished for any reason at this point, will lose out in the long-run. I’m sure they see it from the only perspective that matters to them ($$$) that it is to their advantage to settle these cases out of court (not making any admission of guilt and having an NDA with people who they paid off, even if not truly guilty).
As for safety certifications (UL etc.), it’s naturally a necessary thing to do if they want to stay in business.

Someone made a remark about batteries/chargers in hotels - I too am wondering if hotels will start including one more item on their list of things that their customers sign as they check into a hotel - most people don’t even read this sheet.

Some international airlines are no longer allowing Li batteries to be placed in checked-in luggage. They can be carried in the cabin with the passenger where they are checked by a person. They are becoming more careful with batteries for obvious reasons. I do not know if they actually look for the seal of UL or its equivalent.
The problem with substandard components of batteries isn’t going to easy to eliminate. There are always going to merchants who will be willing to sell items that are questionable and they will have their customers who are looking for a good deal, hoping that bad things happen only to others.

Some laptop batteries caught fire over the years. I am assuming most decent companies are more careful about what they put inside machines. But let’s say a person decides to buy a cheap Chinese knockoff of Apple battery for $25 and puts it in his or her MacBook or whatever… and we are back to the danger to everyone in a plane, for instance!

With items like this, I would accept stricter regulations from the government - unsafe by design items should not be allowed to enter the borders of country. If a business tries to sneak it in, they should be fined so heavily that they will never attempt it again.

Doc_Wui

This is, in my opinion, one of the better analysis of why batteries burst into flame. It's sometimes a charger or circuit failure. but all it takes is a random cell from a bad lot going thermal. Happens more often with 50 cent cells as opposed to five dollar cells.