Battery for rent?

TomH79

Well-known member
Jan 5, 2020
322
304
Finland
Hi

Planning a trip to italy, lake garda.
Do the flight companies take ebike as a gargo without battery?
What i know is that the battery is not allowed.

Anyone knows if there is possibility to rent battery for 2019-2020 model levo?
 
Last edited:

GrahamPaul

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Nov 6, 2019
1,127
1,088
Andalucía
Found this lot doing Bosch batteries on the Gardasee. Maybe they can point you in the right direction.

I was shocked at the 20€/day hire price of the batteries. That would mean that it's probably cheaper buying a brand new battery at the destination and selling it on eBay afterwards! Or, perhaps you can work a buy-back deal with the shop.
 

galaga187

E*POWAH Master
Apr 15, 2018
805
604
Wroughton
Found this lot doing Bosch batteries on the Gardasee. Maybe they can point you in the right direction.

I was shocked at the 20€/day hire price of the batteries. That would mean that it's probably cheaper buying a brand new battery at the destination and selling it on eBay afterwards! Or, perhaps you can work a buy-back deal with the shop.
There are multiple Bosch charging points in and around Garda area. If you end up hiring a bike make sure you book it way in advance - I got stuck with a Hard Tail which wasn't really suited to the riding there.
 

Mcharza

E*POWAH BOSS
Aug 10, 2018
2,617
5,391
Helsinki, Finland
I think there is no shop that is renting Spesh Levo's. So no batteries. It's a german play groud full of Bosch motors.
It's easier to rent an ebike, they have a good selection of them.
 

Frank_Denmark

E*POWAH Master
Patreon
Dec 17, 2018
312
530
Denmark
@TomH79
No matter what You should definitely make the trip to Lake Garda :cool:
It will be a blast with many tracks, good food and perfect weather.
Only the breakfast with espresso and sweet croissant is not god for serious biking :rolleyes:
Your life will be divided into before and after You are doing the Alps :devilish:

The climbs can be long and steep - so be aware that your front chain is the original with 32 t and not 36-38 t. I also change my rear cassette to 10-46.
If not you will use the battery in no time.
Also invest in new brake pads as some of the downhilling can go for many many miles.
 

TheBikePilot

🎥SHOOTER🎥
Patreon
Author
Oct 9, 2018
928
905
Clapham, London
You might be better buying a spare battery and selling it after. They are going for around £429 now for a 500wh.

I've found most cafe's in Europe very accommodating for charging batteries during lunch. Sling your charger in backpack.

+1 for taking a spare set of pads with you.
 

Billy1mate

Member
Apr 17, 2019
29
23
Dorset
Hi

Planning a trip to italy, lake garda.
Do the flight companies take ebike as a gargo without battery?
What i know is that the battery is not allowed.

Anyone knows if there is possibility to rent battery for 2019-2020 model levo?
Isn’t the battery allowed as hand luggage?
 

Pylie1

New Member
Jan 19, 2020
38
20
Australia
I think not. Also flight companies wont take ebikes even battery is removed.

Wow, they won’t fly the bike even without the battery? How can they justify that? I’d be putting them under the pump on that one. Is there something else to do with the motor that stops them from flying?
 

Pylie1

New Member
Jan 19, 2020
38
20
Australia
That article says that you can't take the battery on the plane. It doesn't mention the bike at all - but does go on to suggest renting a battery at the destination. Which would be a bit odd if you couldn't take the (batteryless) bike with you... :unsure:
That’s what I was sort of thinking.
 

TheBikePilot

🎥SHOOTER🎥
Patreon
Author
Oct 9, 2018
928
905
Clapham, London
It's a max 100w Battery for hand or hold luggage. I've not heard you can't take the bike, I imagine that is someone not applying the rules correctly. Probably due to the fact they can't tell on some bikes if the battery has been removed so they blanket ban the bike. Aviation is pretty bad at applying the rules uniformly. After the liquids ban things were pretty sketchy. I had my porridge taken off me quite frequently..!

Battery fires on planes are a big deal as batteries do not need Oxygen to burn. As Heat in the battery reduces resistance which increases the heat it causes a vicious circle called Thermal Runaway, so the Halon extinguishers used in the Cargo Hold and onboard are useless as they are literally the best way of starving any normal fire of Oxygen. Fires need three things, Heat, Fuel & Oxygen. It's called the fire triangle. Remove one of those and the fire should stop. The fire brigade uses water to reduce the heat. As you can see the only way to stop it is remove the heat and we have very limited water on board or the materials to handle a super hot fire to a place where you could apply water. Plus the battery is it's own fuel so you can see it's a very serious situation if one catches fire as they have done in the past, and they were just laptop fires, not a 5-700wh eBike battery!

Batteries burn super hot which can melt the into the cargo hold wall lining and the adjoining systems. A fire in the cabin can ignite other items which may not be able to be contained safely and the only thing we can't get down and on the ground fast enough for is an uncontainable fire.

You can ship the battery to your location but you will need to find a cargo company to ship it for you and need a fireproof container to ship them. I think the market would be in renting the container and having a company referral on an affiliate scheme, rather than renting batteries..
 
Last edited:

TomH79

Well-known member
Jan 5, 2020
322
304
Finland
That article says that you can't take the battery on the plane. It doesn't mention the bike at all - but does go on to suggest renting a battery at the destination. Which would be a bit odd if you couldn't take the (batteryless) bike with you... :unsure:

Forexample, norwegian says that even without battery, ebikes are not allowed.
 

TomH79

Well-known member
Jan 5, 2020
322
304
Finland
4D3CF25D-3791-4EC5-9B4A-8202D604CE69.jpeg
 

GrahamPaul

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Nov 6, 2019
1,127
1,088
Andalucía
I’m guessing that’s due to the motor aspect. There really can not be any other reason. I wonder if you can fly a battery drill with the battery removed for example?

I think it's more likely that they have a blanket ban in place because some bikes just cannot be inspected easily. Specialized, for example?

For a budget airline, I can see that will be an attractive cost saving - no staff training needed. No doubt Ryanair will be looking closely at this too. :mad:

That said, after spending my working life queued at airport security up to 4 times a week, I have no intention of flying anywhere with a bike, e-bike or not, and am doing my damndest to not fly at all. I'll just get there a bit slower with my diesel powered van...

(BTW, once saw a chap in Dusseldorf airport attempt to board a plane with a petrol driven power saw - with blade attached. Got very stroppy when they wouldn't let him take it hand luggage.)
 

Bollox

Member
Oct 12, 2022
20
32
Sweden
It's a max 100w Battery for hand or hold luggage. I've not heard you can't take the bike, I imagine that is someone not applying the rules correctly. Probably due to the fact they can't tell on some bikes if the battery has been removed so they blanket ban the bike. Aviation is pretty bad at applying the rules uniformly. After the liquids ban things were pretty sketchy. I had my porridge taken off me quite frequently..!

Battery fires on planes are a big deal as batteries do not need Oxygen to burn. As Heat in the battery reduces resistance which increases the heat it causes a vicious circle called Thermal Runaway, so the Halon extinguishers used in the Cargo Hold and onboard are useless as they are literally the best way of starving any normal fire of Oxygen. Fires need three things, Heat, Fuel & Oxygen. It's called the fire triangle. Remove one of those and the fire should stop. The fire brigade uses water to reduce the heat. As you can see the only way to stop it is remove the heat and we have very limited water on board or the materials to handle a super hot fire to a place where you could apply water. Plus the battery is it's own fuel so you can see it's a very serious situation if one catches fire as they have done in the past, and they were just laptop fires, not a 5-700wh eBike battery!

Batteries burn super hot which can melt the into the cargo hold wall lining and the adjoining systems. A fire in the cabin can ignite other items which may not be able to be contained safely and the only thing we can't get down and on the ground fast enough for is an uncontainable fire.

You can ship the battery to your location but you will need to find a cargo company to ship it for you and need a fireproof container to ship them. I think the market would be in renting the container and having a company referral on an affiliate scheme, rather than renting batteries..
You do not need a fireproof container. Pole shipped my Voima 950Kw/h battery in a corrugated cardboard package, marked with all the relevant Lithium battery warnings. Maybe the fireproof container (if required) is provided by the cargo airline? My battery arrived without such a container. HOWEVER, it had to be shipped on a cargo flight, as batteries over a certain size are prohibited on ALL passenger flights. As to another comment on here, each airline seems to have their own rules on the eMTB itself (sans battery). I checked KLM as I fly a lot with them, and their policy is that an eMTB is OK, as long as the battery is not fitted in the bike (and not shipped with it - see above comment)
 

G-Sport

Active member
Oct 7, 2022
324
259
Yorkshire
You can take the range extender battery (2 of them even) in the cabin with you. The limit is a maximum of 2 batteries of between 100Wh and 160Wh. Below 100Wh you can have as many as you like but they ALL need to be in your carry-on.
 

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