A man from South Australia has escaped with just a minor burn to his stomach after his homemade e-bike exploded while he was riding to work.
The rider said he was hit by an explosion after the fire started in the bike’s battery on Supple Road at Waterloo Corner, about 20 kilometres north of Adelaide.
The flames started a grass fire, the second blaze in a week involving an e-bike, and fire crews were called to extinguish it.
Mark Ryan, from the Country Fire Service, said the bike’s homemade design could have caused the fire.
“Typically the fires are being caused not by a manufacturing fault, but by user error,” he said.
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“The bike was built from scratch, it’s these designs that have fire authorities on high alert, but across the board, it’s the batteries that are the biggest concern.”
Industry experts are warning against buying home-made bikes or modifying any of the components.
“You don’t know if you are buying anything electric online whether it meets the Australian standards or not,” Ben Attwood from Giant Bikes said.
