My sons Motorbike self combusted!!

[wattie]

What do you make of this fellas?

Was in the Uk until a day ago visiting my son. This bike was his pride n joy!

We were in Aberdeen visiting relatives when we were awoken by a phone call at around 5am, Saturday morning. My sons girlfriend was calling from Edinburgh to inform us that the fire brigade and police were in the process of dealing with a fire at the foot of their small flat block.....started by my sons bike!!

We were shocked by the news and returned to Edinburgh that evening to deal with the problem. The photos of the bike speaks for themselves....the smoke damage to the Housing stairway is pretty intensive as you would imagine....this was quite a blaze....someone could've been killed!

The fire brigade report states categorically that the bike fire was caused by some type of electrical system short/ malfunction. This is pretty worrying as the bike hadn't been used since my arrival  in Edinburgh...sat cold for 3 days!!

It appears that this bike self combusted.....I've written to Yamaha......response pending....

Cheers Wattie

[wattie]

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[wattie]

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[wattie]

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[John Scherrer]

That's not normal ! He must be hurting ...

The insurance claim is going to be interesting ..
No other bikes of that model done anything similar? - worth a google in case it's happened before.

[wattie]

Agreed John.....
Fire report would be more believable if it said the cause couldn't be accurately identified.

If Yamaha say it's impossible, then that makes it Arson and that means it should have been investigated by the police cos  with 20 people plus in that building someone could have died.
They'll be notified by complaint if  that happens

Cheers Wattie

[meladdo]

Blimey - one of those odd happenings, you wouldn't think a little battery could cause such a fire....I hope the makers want to keep it from getting to the media

Glad nobody was injured, could have been a whole lot worse Wattie -

[wattie]

Yup it could've been a lot worse. awaiting the insurance response.
cheers Wattie

[NormLarson]

Wattie, I had a business fire in '97 started by a survey instrument battery charger.  Capacitor gone nuts.  It wasn't a very big fire, but, it got hot in a small area and got soot in every nook and cranny in every office.  Even with a strong flashlight you could not see in front of your nose.  It melted a brand new survey GPS system and destroyed two robotic instruments and soot damaged everything else.  It was devastating and it took quite a while to be able to be in a completely dark room.  The motorbike fire could have been a whole lot worse, I am glad for you that it wasn't.  It is amazing how even the smallest fire can soot everything and do horrendous damage.  Thankfully no one was hurt

[fb.george]

Wattie
Sorry to hear this.
The idea behind insurance is the losses of the few are borne by the many and a fortuitous loss such as this should be covered. There are, though, inevitably terms and conditions in the policy, as there are in any contract. Claims is my area so if you have any issues give me a shout and I can give you a view
Good luck
Mark

[wattie]

Thanks Norm and Mark.
Hopefully there won't be any issues with the claim...time will tell...if so may run it past you Mark.

Followed up Yamaha today....no comment thus far.

Cheers Wattie

[Jacob Potts]

Good grief, wattie!  That's terrible!

So, no one is hurt?  Everyone's okay?

Something just occurred to me: was the motorbike started by a lithium-ion battery?  Lithium-ion batteries have combusted quite a lot of late (c.f.:  http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/11/29/could-chevy-volt-lithium-ion-battery-fires-burn-out-interest-in-evs-and-hybrids/.

Worried about you and yours,

Jacob Potts

[benyeats]

[quote="Jacob Potts"]
Good grief, wattie!  That's terrible!

So, no one is hurt?  Everyone's okay?

Something just occurred to me: was the motorbike started by a lithium-ion battery?  Lithium-ion batteries have combusted quite a lot of late (c.f.:  http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/11/29/could-chevy-volt-lithium-ion-battery-fires-burn-out-interest-in-evs-and-hybrids/.

Worried about you and yours,

Jacob Potts
[/quote]

Very unlikely it is a Li-Ion battery in a non specialist motorbike ££££.

On the same subject I am constantly amazed that you are allowed Li-Ion powered laptops on aircraft.