Bion X 500HD

[Hugh]

I took my road bike which is an EVO HB1 disc out for a good test ride today. I live in Winnipeg which is in the province of Manitoba, today the temp was 4 degrees Celcius with occasional drizzle. I'm planning to ride to work, a distance of a little over 12 kilometers, pretty much flat all the way so I thought a test run would be in order. Keeping the pedal assist in level 1 in the middle gears all the way there and averaging around 18 km,s per hour. Took about 45 minutes. On the way home level 2 was used because the wind came up a bit so speed was about the same. I used the throttle a bit in the busy intersections and up a couple of bike path bridges just because it was so cool to fly up to 32 km's almost instantly. It only used the first bar on the display which actually shows up as a half bar so power is never gonna be a problem or range either. Nice system.

 

[Hugh]

Now I seem to be having an issue. When I decided to charge the battery for the 1st time when I came out to the garage in the morning the ring around the charge port was green indicating the battery had re charged and the charger had shut off. The next time the battery was put on charge when I went out the next morning the ring was still red which indicated the battery was still being charged 12 hours later. Everything seemed to work Ok but now I,m not sure I trust it after reading about fire issues with lithium batteries. The dealer will be contacted, hopefully they can help clear this up.

 

[J.R.]

Now I seem to be having an issue. When I decided to charge the battery for the 1st time when I came out to the garage in the morning the ring around the charge port was green indicating the battery had re charged and the charger had shut off. The next time the battery was put on charge when I went out the next morning the ring was still red which indicated the battery was still being charged 12 hours later. Everything seemed to work Ok but now I,m not sure I trust it after reading about fire issues with lithium batteries. The dealer will be contacted, hopefully they can help clear this up.

Hugh, I'm far from a battery expert! And I would have your dealer check it out. We read about lithium battery fires all the time, but the vast majority of the time they are just that, lithium battery fires. We use lithium-ion batteries in our bikes, very different battery.

I had a cr123a lithium battery explode in a flashlight on my nightstand in the middle of the night, I still have the burn mark, on the stand, not me Sounded like a gun going off in the middle of the night, scared the hell out of me and my wife. Lithium batteries are not rechargeable, lithium-ion batteries are. The third type of battery that gets mixed in is Li-Po (better stated Li-Poly, lithium with a poly cover) and in this case these are fast discharging, far more volatile battery used in radio controlled (RC) hobbies.

Lithium-ion battery fires are far more rare and not nearly as dramatic. You get basically a smoldering mess with noxious fumes, so you don't want that situation to happen in the house. Often times lithium-ion battery fires set something else alight and that's where you get whole house fires.

Like you said the best is for the dealer to check it. If that weren't easy you could sit with it on the back porch and see it you can top it off. I know enough to be dangerous and I didn't want you to worry, but someone else here will have good suggestions.

Good luck and don't worry....

 

[Hugh]

Thanks for the info. Until i get to the dealer the battery will be recharged on the garage floor not near any combustibles. I had just read about the bike dealer Crazy Lenny's so that really got me thinking.

 

[Ann M.]

We're real fans of digital timers at my shop. Serves 2 purposes: prevents most overcharging situations and can be programmed to maintain a battery when the bike is not ridden regularly. Of course, put the whole setup on a surge protector.

 

[Hugh]

That's great advice and I will get a timer and a surge protector. Also I emailed Bionx and they responded saying please take the the bike to the dealer to get it diagnosed which will happen today. Hopefully it's not something critical, the bionx has a 3 year warranty so not to worried. I will post up here as to the outcome.

 

[Hugh]

Well i took the bike to the dealer and he hooked it up to his computer and it seems all is well. It did receive a firmware update and the battery management system appears to working correctly.