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Fatal Bristol flat fire was caused by "homemade electric bike"

4 comments

1 year 3 months ago

Filing this story under "🔥 Whats hot?" is unfortunate.

1 year 4 months ago

Bloody cyclists... sad

1 year 4 months ago

Naturally the press is going to conflate homebrewed ebikes and knock-off batteries and chargers with proper retail e-bikes and paint them all as a menace.

 

In most of these cases, I suspect the offending bike was already the product of some kind of law breaking. Either they are (overpowered) homebrews, or ebikes stolen sans OEM battery and/or charger, necessitating an Alibaba sourced alternative.

1 year 4 months ago

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63031602

Quote:

Bristol City Council owns the tower block and said the fire was contained in a flat. Residents said they told the council of their fears about homemade electric bicycles being stored there.

Ahmed Sharif, who lives on the third floor of the tower block with four children, said he had been warning the caretaker for months about electrical bikes being kept on the upper floors.

He said the bikes were a "homemade version" and not made by a manufacturer.

"Someone actually designed it poorly and most of them actually have a cheaper version of Lithium ion batteries," which could be more dangerous, he added.

Based on this, I'm presuming we're talking about those delivery bikes you see haring around with a huge 'something' duct taped in place in the middle of the frame?