When things go wrong with your E-bike!
E-bikes are a great thing in China, they are very reasonably priced and allow you to travel to places without having to rely on taxis. I have had Rosietta ( my rose gold E-bike ) for over 18 months and she has done a great job at getting me around Jinan and has been my transport to and from work every day. I paid 1500 RMB for my E-bike and haven’t had any issues with the bike itself, but I have needed to bring it back to the shop a few times for repairs ( which were caused by me crashing my E-bike or me blowing it up……which by the way wasn’t COMPLETELY my fault but we will get to that.)
One of my crashes happened on my way to school and it left me with a broken basket and a hell of a bruise on my shin, which was terrible timing because I was due to dance in a show the next day! I was driving full speed up the road when an E-bike came out of a side street and turned towards me, unfortunately, the street he was coming out of was lined with bushes so I had no warning to hit the breaks until our E-bikes collided! He turned to go down the wrong side of the road, which is annoying but not illegal so it was just sheer bad luck that we were both passing the same corner at the same time. I said sorry out of courtesy ( even though I was the one with the bruised leg ) but he was ranting and raving in Chinese about his bike, which by the way didn’t have a single scratch on it. Anyway, off we went on our journey and after school, I took my bike to the shop and got a new basket for 30rmb, cheap as chips! Oh and as for the show I had to use a hell of a lot of make-up on my huge bruised shin, but apart from that, it was grand!
Blowing up my E-bike- Whoops!
The time I blew up my E-bike TECHNICALLY wasn’t my fault ……sort of. I left my E-bike charger in the front basket of my E-bike and left my E-bike outside in the rain, which of course led to the charger blowing up when I tried to use it a few days later ( apparently the electrics didn’t dry out…but it was worth a try! ) So I ordered a new charger online and it came a few days later, I noticed it smelt a little funny when I was using it but it was charging my E-bike fine and there was no ‘faulty electrics’ smell so I just thought it was a ‘funny-smelling charger’. I used it for about a month with absolutely no problems and I just got used to the smell. One day as I was driving home with Louise we pulled up to a red light and started chatting, when the light went green and we tried to cross the road my E-bike just died. The power was gone and I ended up using my feet to push me across the road on the E-bike ( in other words, I ‘Flintstoned’ across the roads ). We stopped and I was fiddling the key to try and turn it back on when Louise casually said “Aisling, your E-bike is on fire”…..I laughed and said “ my E-bike is not on fire…..” and sure enough when I looked down there was smoke coming from where the battery was! I grabbed my keys from the ignition, jumped off that e-bike, and abandoned it in the middle of the road. Thankfully the smoking stopped and I was able to push the bike off to the side and get on the back of Louise’s E-bike to get home. Later that evening I arranged a lift to pick the bike up and bring it to the shop for a new battery, it turned out that the charger I was using was made for larger bikes and it overcharged my battery. I ordered the correct charger but was sent the wrong one and I didn’t think to check it. It cost around 300 RMB for a new battery and my E-bike was as good as new! I also bought a new charger from the shop and made them promise it was the right voltage before I took it home. Lesson learnt, always check the voltage!