Quote Originally Posted by Tradd View Post
jp, please pay careful attention to reviews about charging issues about whatever you buy. It's probably an issue with cheap Chinese ebikes, but there have been a lot of fires caused by ebike batteries being charged inside. The condo complex where I live has actually banned ebike battery charging (a charger was caught smoking in another building).
Yes, that is definitely a thing but from the various podcasters/forums I follow it seems to mainly be a cheap Chinese bike thing. Also a lot of the problem bikes have been (again) the cheap Chinese ones being used as delivery bikes in places like NYC. Using them in the harsh winter with salted roads, etc, is a problem because it corrodes the stuff that protects the battery. Also, many of the super cheap e-bikes and batteries don't have a UL approval for just this reason. I should be fine because I didn't buy a low end bike, we never salt our roads since it doesn't snow, and I don't intend to do much riding when it's wet out although one of the paths I use to get to the safeway and library is often wet because the hillside next to it weeps onto the path all the time.