Bike Manufacturers Are Making Bikes Less Repairable

Lithium ion batteries and battery modules are never ever gonna be user repairable. The main reason is that the electrolyte is a highly toxic, carcinogenic and extremely flammable organic solvent. AAs are user swappable because the electrolyte is water based.

Bikes started being less repairable when manufacturers noticed that steel frame 10 speeds were lasting multiple decades. If parts continue to be available, those frames are still going to be in use another 50 years from now. Particularly where cartridge bearings are used.

Carbon fiber bikes are part of the trend. Will we eventually see a straight up plastic adult bike frame?

Check out what we're building at https://get.gouach.com ! We're solving exactly this problem, and we have designed a fireproof casing for extra safety! Happy to answer any question :)

I could see this being interesting if you handle all the aspects of pack teardown, rebuild and recertification, and send out finished packs. Would you be comfortable with doing that and standing behind those 100%?

Asking regular people or even highly technical people to assess cell geometry, type, quality, balancing and cell capacity issues is going to result in people dying in fire. It just isn't that easy, even if you start with brand new, matched cells.

Fireproof casing sounds great, as long as it's also being charged in a fireproof bunker. Unfortunately, that's not usually the case for consumer products.

Noticing that in the video of the cell vent testing - Bosch vs. Gouach the electrical wire harness immediately turns black. If you charge this pack in a box filled with paper and a cell vents, will it start a fire?

How are you going to thoroughly test with your production parts before shipping to customers next month?

Thanks for all those questions! No we will ship standard cells that we tested the battery with (it is EU-certified, and UL-certification is ongoing)

Yes! The battery is quite safe now! We have iterated on the design for close to 4 years now.

We have added safeties everywhere so that even a misplaced cell wouldn't be dangerous. And as you mention the fireproof casing is the extra layer of safety, so that if there is an unlikely thermal event, no flames can go out.

We've been running those batteries for around 2 years on about 1000 shared mobility e-bikes in France, so we're quite sure of the design!

Lion cell electrolytes are nowhere near as toxic as those of NiCd or lead-acid. Flammability is the biggest risk. Toxicity is comparable to acetone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propylene_carbonate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diethyl_carbonate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethyl_acetate

At least standardized form factors and no complex proprietary communication protocols to the battery would help a lot to make battery replacements more affordable

Yes, but unless you drink the lead acid battery acid, you're not exposed to it. Ditto for NiCd. No one is drinking battery electrolyte. The key is that all of the above in Lithium ion are VOC and highly available, including what you mentioned and worse, specifically NMP.

AAs aren't user repairable either. When was the last time you repaired an AA? What the article is asking for is just a standardized connector and voltage for Li-ion batteries.

> Bikes started being less repairable when manufacturers noticed that steel frame 10 speeds were lasting multiple decades.

Steel frames are heavy beasts. Aluminum alloys, magnesium alloys or carbon fiber is waaaay lighter in contrast, and weight is king at least if you're not running with electrical assistance.

It's exactly the same in cars, there we have exactly the same trend towards lighter but more brittle materials.

That's great to hear. UL certification is a starting point. How is that going?

What does EU-certified mean with regards to battery safety?

I think the sticking point with UL is that you need to know the specific application in order to assess the downstream risks. Are you able to do the UL certification for multiple bikes, or just a specific model?

Are you able to get UL certification for multiple different cell brands, or do you need to do a different certification for each type of cells used in the pack?

I'm assuming mixed salvaged cells are off the table for UL certification?

I misspoke, what I intended to say is that lithium ion batteries are never going to be user swappable. Yes, you can get sketchy stuff off of Amazon that supports it, but the regulatory bodies will, correctly, continue to strongly resist end users touching bare lithium ion cells.

Ever drop an AA battery? Nothing happens. Drop an 18650, you can easily have a little 1000 degree rocket shooting fire and toxic chemicals out one end.

Nominal cell voltage is fairly standard and is dictated by cell chemistry. Standardized connector is welded zinc tab, for various good safety reasons.

People are talking about replacing cells within packs, not disassembling the cells themselves!

Agreed, I apologize that I wasn't more clear. It's just that the electrolyte composition forms the basis of safety. In an environment where end users are handling bare cells, you need to assume the cells are leaky/ruptured.

For example, if you have ever changed out old Duracell alkaline batteries, the white stuff on the contacts means they leaked.

"In the US, propylene carbonate is not regulated as a volatile organic compound (VOC) because it does not contribute significantly to the formation of smog and because its vapor is not known or suspected to cause cancer or other toxic effects"

"Diethyl carbonate is used as a solvent such as in erythromycin intramuscular injections."

Ethyl acetate: "The LD50 for rats is 5620 mg/kg,[24] indicating low acute toxicity. Given that the chemical is naturally present in many organisms, there is little risk of toxicity."

I used to race as an amateur for almost 10 years. I saw people winning on steel frame bikes and for flat terrain the weight of the bike is not that important. Carbon is light indeed, but the frame as a percent of the overall bike can be quite low, as low as 25%. Half a kilo in a 12 kg MTB is insignificant except pro races.

Yes, just need to watch out for the ethers, NMP, various other volatile additives. And even worse, the HF. That's the one that melts your bones.

Lithium ion electrolyte is extremely hazardous when inhaled. I would not attempt to handle, open or modify cells without engineered ventilation and appropriate training and protection. If a cell is punctured or suspected to be leaking, I would evacuate to fresh air immediately and activate a hazardous substance control team.

It appears you're far too paranoid for your own good. If by NMP you're referring to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone ,

"N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone is a relatively innocuous compound with an LD50 of 4150 mg/kg (oral, rats).[5] It is non-mutagenic."

HF is only formed in combustion, but then so are a lot of other more hazardous chemicals.

But getting the occasional whiff of electrolyte (which I admit actually has a quite pleasant smell) or having some skin contact from a leaking cell is certainly nothing to worry about.

I know plenty of people who regularly work on cars, washed their hands with gasoline and probably came into contact with much worse, yet still lived healthily into their 80s and 90s.

I'm not necessarily talking about bike races... for commuter bikes that you have to lug up and down stairs into your basement, every gram counts.

My e-bike is somewhat around 20 kg, that thing is a tank in its own right, and it's hell to haul around when our beloved Deutsche Bahn once again manages to fuck up elevators.