#BikeTooter I discovered today that #CPSC has issued a warning for certain #RadPowerBikes #ebike batteries.
Most outlets are failing to report that this warning does NOT apply to any products RPB is currently selling. It applies only to two obsolete model batteries that were sold in the past, RP-1304 and HL-RP-S1304.
The warning does NOT apply to the current generation "Safe Shield" batteries.
There is no recall, primarily because the company is bankrupt and would not be able to fulfill it.
The CPSC warning notice:
' The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is warning consumers to immediately stop using lithium-ion batteries for Rad Power Bikes e-bikes, model numbers RP-1304 and HL-RP-S1304, because the batteries pose a risk of serious injury and death.
The hazardous batteries can unexpectedly ignite and explode, posing a fire hazard to consumers, especially when the battery or the harness has been exposed to water and debris. '
#RadPowerBikes is on the verge of going completely out of business by January 9, 2026, if they do not receive an infusion of money or a buyout offer.
As it is, just about everything is on sale, and just before they CPSC announcement, they put all their replacement batteries on deep discount, blowing them out almost immediately. So, there is no stock of batteries that exists from which RPB could draw in the event of a recall, and no money to buy more.
This is a really shitty situation, but…
This situation is very likely partly due to the fact that RPB, as the biggest brand in ebikes, became a target for frivolous lawsuits, like many other companies before them.
The very large Li-ion batteries in ebikes are inherently dangerous. In fact, *all* Li-ion batteries are inherently dangerous, but because ebike batteries tend to be very large (typically 5-7x the power that is permitted on a passenger airline), they post additional risks in the event of failure.
Failures are rare, but…
they do occur.
It should be noted that RPB has some of the best designed batteries on the market, and their failure rate is extremely low.
#Ebikes are certainly not the only consumer devices to experience failures that result in fire hazards, nor are they the only consumer devices with very high capacity Li-ion battery banks.
The very popular Li-ion "power stations" (eg: Jackery, etc) that so many people are using are equally dangerous, possibly moreso.
Remember Blitz? The US manufacturer of gasoline jerry cans? They were the industry leader, they were the biggest brand in the business.
They no longer exist, becase they were driven out of business by frivolous lawsuits claiming thier products were a safety hazard, because morons kept lighting themselves on fire while intentionally pouring gasoline onto fires.
I have used Blitz cans all my life, and never once lit myself on fire, because I'm not a moron who pours gasoline onto fires.
In fact, I have at least 5 Blitz gasoline cans in my home, right now, plus 4 more Blitz water cans. All but two of them have been in service for over 20 years. Those two extras actually belong to a friend who has lent them to me.
They are 100% perfectly safe and always have been. There are several more Blitz cans in use at my mother's house in NJ.
Again, we don't use gas cans to pour gasoline on fires, so they never explode or otherwise catch on fire. Go figure.
So, why was Blitz sued, and not other makers of gas cans? Simply because Blitz was the largest, and therefore the most lucrative target.
Ditto for Rad Power Bikes. Enter attorneys Jon and Kaye Steinsapir, who sued RPB after their 12yo daughter died in a crash while riding on the back of a Rad Power ebike operated by her 11yo friend.
A tragic story, but not anything for which a bicycle company ought to ever be held liable.
The Rad Power Bikes RadRunner is an adult cargo ebike that should never be operated by an 11yo, much less with a 12yo passenger on the back, not on level ground, nevermind **down a 14% grade hill**.
This was a tragic mistake made by unsupervised children, not corporate malfeasance or carelessness.
' Enchanted Way lies in Pacific Palisades, an affluent neighborhood on L.A.’s Westside that borders Malibu, Santa Monica, Brentwood, and the Pacific Ocean. If you are a fit road cyclist with proper gearing, it’s a nice little grind.
According to the workout app Strava, the final 0.3 mile of Enchanted Way rises 150 feet, with a sustained pitch topping 14 percent.
On a clear day you can see all the way to Catalina Island, 45 miles to the south, from the cul-de-sac at the top. '
The steepest hill in my town is, as I've been able to estimate from Google Maps, a 9.5% average grade. Portions may be steeper.
On my RadMission, from the top of that hill to the bottom, which is also about 150 feet in elevation change over a very short run, I can easily top 35 mph without even pedalling.
It takes adult hand strength to haul a heavy ebike to a stop from those speeds, even when you are expecting it and are prepared for it.
On a 14% grade? I wouldn't even attempt riding it.
Bicycle enthusiasts might know of the (in)famous "Manayunk Wall" in Philadelphia.
But did you know that the Wall has an average grade of only 8.2%, although the steepest section is about 17%? The Wall climbs 226 feet in elevation.
And the night before the big race, there used to be the very much unofficial and very dangerous "Manayunk Downhill" party.
But, you may be wondering, why is it that these large Li-ion battery packs are so dangerous?
It's because Li-ion batteries have an inherently dangerous chemisty, and because large arrays of them are typically wired in series to provide higher voltages than the 3.7 V characteristic voltage of a single cell.
When one cell in a series becomes unbalanced, it actually draws current from its series mates, and this can cause runaway heating and catastrophic failure.
So, Li-ion batteries have to be very carefully managed, and they do not take well to abuse, mistreatment, or damage, and anytime you use them in series, the danger multiplies.
Note carefully that the CPSC warning specifically mentions "especially when the battery or the harness has been exposed to water and debris."
That wasn't a random addition.
Ebike batteries commonly operate at 36V, 48V, or even higher nominal voltages.
To get those voltages out of a cell type that has a characteristic voltage of about 3.6-3.7V, you have to run them in series groups of 10+ cells.
A series of 10 cells is 10x more likely to experience a failure, compared with the rate of failure of a single cell.
This is not to say that there are not problems that are specific to the ebike industry. To the contrary, there are glaring problems, and I am not only a native of NYC, where this is a particualr problem, I'm the granddaughter of an FDNY Battalion Chief and a technology consultant in my own right.
The vast majority of the problem is not legitimate bicycle companies like Rad Power Bikes, it's the Amazon and AliExpress, etc. bikes, and the fact that people often mix up chargers and batteries.
And this doesn't even begin to address the shady hack shops that are especially a problem in NYC, when they are "fixing" faulty battery packs and putting them back into service, and may have hundreds of batteries being charged at once.
Many of these shops serve the delivery rider market that NYC has created with its high rents and high white collar salaries.
It's class warfare that forces people into high risk work and the need to reduce costs.
NYC has always had its grey markets and black markets.
As someone who grew up there in the bad old days of the 1970s and 1980s, I know this better than most younger people who grew up with the santized version of NYC.
Grey and black markets are part of why NYC is such an economic success story—people doing tha hustle for a bustle—but they have never before dealt with consumer products of this type, that are literally dangerous if mishandled in the wrong hands.
(well, propane tanks, maybe)
Younger people might not remember this, but NYC was very late to get wired with cable TV, so back in the 1980s, HBO used to broadcast over the air from the Empire State Building mast, using encoded transmissions and required specific types of antennas and decoder boxes.
Hack shops all over the city reverse engineered the things and sold them cheap. Half the city was getting HBO for free, and HBO knew there wasn't anything they could really do to stop it.
That's just how NYC rolls.
There is absolutely not enough regulation of the #ebike market, especially where Li-ion batteries and chargers are concerned.
But Rad Power Bikes has been doing everything they possibly can to ensure the safety of this type of product, and in fact has lead the industry in safety protections.
I'm not saying that these batteries weren't faulty; I'm saying that RPB is being unfairly targeted by powerful monied and political interests, is bankrupt, and is almost certain to go defunct come Jan 9.
And that is going to make the danger much, much worse, as people will then turn to much less reliable companies to fulfill their #ebike needs.
This genie isn't going back into the bottle. Ebikes and large Li-ion batteries are here to stay, because they are far too useful, and if you drive the legitimate businesses out of business, then you will be left with a grey and black market that is much harder to regulate.
Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐