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!