2_i 

A friend bought an electric folding bike in China and tried to bring it over with her to the US. According to her, the bike was light and packed to a reasonable size. She liked how it rode. She is actually into riding, but gets tired easily, so an e-bike made sense.

Ahead of the flight, she called the airline about taking the bike along and they said that there were principally no restrictions. At check-in they asked her for a bike fee that she paid and all progressed fine until the security check where they pointed out that the battery on her bike had a 180Wh capacity while the maximum allowed by security was 160Wh. She left the bike behind with someone who escorted her to the airport. She actually asked that person to stay until the bike cleared as she had no full confidence in success.

Looking into airline regulations I think that she should have been already alerted by the airline ahead to the flight. Delta, that she most likely flew, has own limit of 160Wh on individual batteries and these need to be in the carry on.

This can serve as a warning to those who ponder flying with electric bikes, folding or not.

badmother

Since she needed electric assist I wonder if it could have been sent as a disability aid but I guess she would need papers for proof that she needed it. I would have taken the bike and lleft the battery and asked somebody to ship the battery- if possible.

jur

Lithium batteries are a major fire hazard.

dahoneezz

Could she not just leave the battery, instead of everything?

fietsbob

Planning ahead you could use haz mat shipping , after all a china manufactured battery ships to market , to be sold..

so you can also buy a new battery when you arrive. the other one taking surface shipping can arrive later..

linberl

Yes, it's an issue. Some e-bike kit makers are very aware and make batteries that "split" or are smaller and connect together - Grin Technologies being one. Their batteries are actually amazing. They make the batteries for the BF Pakit kit as well.

2_i 

With regard to taking the bike without the battery, this was my idea too. However, in such situations you are under stress, there is some human dynamics around you, and you have to decide whether the higher priority is to get over as much as possible or to keep the bike as completely usable at one end or another. In any case, she left the bike but may have a chance to regroup in a few months from now as she is scheduled to travel down there again.

A principal option is also to split the battery into two and then reconstitute the two halves upon arrival. Delta e.g. talks about 160Wh limit per battery. However, I suspect that somewhere deeper in the regulations is a stipulation that the batteries need to be certified for the capacity and a home brewed piece will not get accepted. In fact I ran into a problem of shipping a lithium battery from a commercial seller who apparently was combining the cells together and adding a protection circuit according to what was in the order. After this turned out to be the case, I had a choice of either paying a hefty fee for shipping a dangerous product or for certifying the battery by an independent lab. In the latter case there was a shipping fee too but I would be getting ahead if I were ordering many such batteries . I obviously cancelled the order and placed one for separate cells and circuit that I combined together myself.

2_i 

I had a personal harrowing experience from connecting a phone to power bank in the darkness of night while stopped in a car on traffic lights. I apparently pushed the micro USB plug in with reversed polarity. The phone, cable and bank combination started heating and in a moment the car was filled with smoke and I had a melting mess on my lap. By then the traffic and myself were moving and I was deciding whether to throw everything through the window or what. I broke the combination apart and threw it on the floor and passenger seat while opening the window. The final cost was a burnt down power bank, melted cable and a burnt out hole in the seat. The phone survived.

jur

Heh that reminds me of a similar experience I had way before the days of lithium batteries... I was shopping for a used car and went to test drive a private owner's with a friend. After we checked the car over we got in for a test drive. I reversed out of the driveway and by the time I got to the street, my friend said, "Look at that!" pointing to a tendril of smoke coming from the steering cowling. I quickly drove back in and by the time we got to the guy the car was completely filled with acrid burning plastic smoke and I had to stick my head out the window. He came running up and screamed, "Turn it off! Turn it off!". Turned out the wiring harness had shorted out and burned up. (I didn't buy the car.)

2_i 

However horrific these can be, it is so much better to have these experiences on the ground than in the air. I often have a phone next to an operating radio on my handlebars. When a call comes in, it completely knocks off the reception on the radio. I.e. I can see myself a reason to go to the airplane mode in the air.

Along the line above, a friend was telling me about his rollover accident with a roof landing. He said that as he realized that they were rolling over, he switched the ignition off. I asked why. He said that he wanted to reduce chances of any ruptured gas igniting. I am not sure about practicalities of the prevention but it had to be a quick thinking indeed .