Eight months ago in the sweet summer heat we unleashed our customer ebike Project Gallery to the world.

In no time we had dozens of submissions pouring in, and prizes were announced every week as Grin's Staff got together to vote on their favorite ebike builds. It was good fun, but we got distracted over winter and let things slip.

Fortunately one of our many generous Grinvestors said he'd like to offer up $5000 of his accumulated store credit as funds for other people to use, providing a great opportunity to kick off a new round of gallery projects for 2024. 

We're starting this Grintastic Gallery Giveaway with a retroactive launch of monthly prize draws, and have just chosen 6 submissions at random for the months of October to March:

So congratulations to each winner above. Each of you now has $250 of store credit added to your ebikes.ca account to use ordering whatever you like. 

For the rest of the this campaign, each week we'll have a different staff member at Grin pick their peronal favorite build in the gallery and make a little video on why they like it and award $250 of credit. We'll also do a random draw of all the submissions from that week and give the draw winner $250 as well. Funds you can apply towards any future orders from Grin.  It doesn't get easier than that. 

As the campaign winds up at the end of May, we'll then select a new prize winner for the best project build video with a final $1000 prize. 

If you've been huddled away all winter building up your dream e-machine, now is the time to tell your project story in photos and videos, upload them to our gallery, and show off your creation to the world. 

Thanks to all who came to visit us at the BC bike show the previous weekend!

The attendance levels were great and our talk on our 20 year experience dealing with lithium battery safety on ebikes was also well received. For those who wanted watch but couldn't attend the show, we've just published a filmed version of this talk on youtube:

Grin's Perspective on Ebike Battery Fires, 20 Years of Experience - Live from the BC Bike Show

Non-UL Battery Blowout: 25% Discount

As explained in the video above, the recent media attention around micromobility battery fires has brought a large scrutiny to the industry, and dramatically changed the insurance landscape so nearly everyone in North America is required to have batteries with UL2271 certification. 

We of course are included in that, and in order to meet the insurances' requirement that 100% of our battery packs are UL certified we have just started a blowout sale on ALL our current battery inventory. Every single non-UL battery model is currently discounted by 25%. This is your chance to get a high quality pack with the best cells at a great price.

Are these batteries less safe?

Absolutely no less safe than a UL certified pack. Given an expected construction standard and BMS functionality, the safety of a battery is almost entirely determined by the brand of cells used in the pack. These batteries are all built using top-of-the-line Panasonic 18650 GA cells or Samsung 50G 21700 cells which have a nearly flawless track record. They have an established robust BMS circuit and sound mechanical construction, but due to peculiarities in UL's BMS requirement they can't quite be UL certified, and our insurers don't like that.

Their stubbornness is our pain and your gain! 

Are they warrantied

Yes, our standard Grin warranty still applies and the batteries are as reliable as they have always been. Our plan was to offer both UL and less expensive non-UL batteries and give customers a choice, but the insurance folks want us to exclusively carry UL certified batteries to renew our term.

When will you have UL listed packs

By later this spring we will be offering exactly the same batteries but with UL2271 certification. Because of the expensive testing fees we will start off with just a couple of the most popular models, and gradually add more varieties as cash flow allows. The UL certified packs will be functionally identical to what we offer now, but will simply cost more, both to pay for the testing fees and the more expensive UL BMS boards.