Lighting + alternate mounting

Hi all,

I am refining my current lighting system and I am thinking about
mounting my 12V SLA battery on the downtube using the existing water
bottle cage mounts. The battery itself is a small brick, but is too
large to fit in a standard water bottle cage (3.5"L x 2.75"W x 4"H).
I believe the weight is 4lbs, significantly greater than your typical
water bottle.

Motivation:
1) Cable routing. I don't like having a power cable running from the
back of my bike to the front.
2) Ease-of-use. Mounting a battery to the rear rack is sometimes a
pain in the neck, particularly in the dark. I want to simply be able
to slide a battery in/out when necessary.
3) Allows me to remove my rear rack, which I no longer use (except as
a battery mount)


I am thinking of using some aluminum sheeting (cut/bent/machined
appropriately) to form a cage for the battery. Does anyone have any
idea of what type of stresses a typical aluminum frame can take on the
bottle cage mount points? I was thinking of mounting the battery
vertically (i.e. with the 2.75" side resting closest to the frame) to
minimize the risk of my toes/legs hitting the battery cage.

I could, of course, move to a smaller battery size that fits in the
bottle cage.....but availability in my neck of the woods is limited.
And I would rather not buy another battery if I don't have to (and I
don't want to reduce the battery capacity by much). FWIW, I currently
mount the battery on my rear rack.

Has anyone else tried this sort of thing?

Cheers,
Dave

"Borrall Wonnell" wrote in message
om...
Hi all,

I am refining my current lighting system and I am thinking about
mounting my 12V SLA battery on the downtube using the existing water
bottle cage mounts. The battery itself is a small brick, but is too
large to fit in a standard water bottle cage (3.5"L x 2.75"W x 4"H).
I believe the weight is 4lbs, significantly greater than your typical
water bottle.

Motivation:
1) Cable routing. I don't like having a power cable running from the
back of my bike to the front.
2) Ease-of-use. Mounting a battery to the rear rack is sometimes a
pain in the neck, particularly in the dark. I want to simply be able
to slide a battery in/out when necessary.
3) Allows me to remove my rear rack, which I no longer use (except as
a battery mount)


I am thinking of using some aluminum sheeting (cut/bent/machined
appropriately) to form a cage for the battery. Does anyone have any
idea of what type of stresses a typical aluminum frame can take on the
bottle cage mount points? I was thinking of mounting the battery
vertically (i.e. with the 2.75" side resting closest to the frame) to
minimize the risk of my toes/legs hitting the battery cage.

I could, of course, move to a smaller battery size that fits in the
bottle cage.....but availability in my neck of the woods is limited.
And I would rather not buy another battery if I don't have to (and I
don't want to reduce the battery capacity by much). FWIW, I currently
mount the battery on my rear rack.

Has anyone else tried this sort of thing?

Cheers,
Dave

On my mountain bike I mount the battery in this location. I use a piece of
high density foam to stop the battery from chafing the frame and simply use
gaffer tape to hold it all in place. It looks a bit rough but it works. I
use a four amp hour gel cell.

Marty

"Borrall Wonnell" wrote in message
om...
Hi all,

I am refining my current lighting system and I am thinking about
mounting my 12V SLA battery on the downtube using the existing water
bottle cage mounts. The battery itself is a small brick, but is too
large to fit in a standard water bottle cage (3.5"L x 2.75"W x 4"H).
I believe the weight is 4lbs, significantly greater than your typical
water bottle.

Motivation:
1) Cable routing. I don't like having a power cable running from the
back of my bike to the front.
2) Ease-of-use. Mounting a battery to the rear rack is sometimes a
pain in the neck, particularly in the dark. I want to simply be able
to slide a battery in/out when necessary.
3) Allows me to remove my rear rack, which I no longer use (except as
a battery mount)


I am thinking of using some aluminum sheeting (cut/bent/machined
appropriately) to form a cage for the battery. Does anyone have any
idea of what type of stresses a typical aluminum frame can take on the
bottle cage mount points? I was thinking of mounting the battery
vertically (i.e. with the 2.75" side resting closest to the frame) to
minimize the risk of my toes/legs hitting the battery cage.

I could, of course, move to a smaller battery size that fits in the
bottle cage.....but availability in my neck of the woods is limited.
And I would rather not buy another battery if I don't have to (and I
don't want to reduce the battery capacity by much). FWIW, I currently
mount the battery on my rear rack.

Has anyone else tried this sort of thing?

Cheers,
Dave

On my mountain bike I mount the battery in this location. I use a piece of
high density foam to stop the battery from chafing the frame and simply use
gaffer tape to hold it all in place. It looks a bit rough but it works. I
use a four amp hour gel cell.

Marty

I tried a prototype aluminum 'cage' attached to my frame. Ultimately,
I felt that there was too much deflection caused by slight lateral
forces (i.e. pushing sideways on the battery....I figure that if the
aluminum cage was deflecting that much, then the aluminum frame it is
attached to would eventually experience failure.

Back to the drawing board. I think it may be simply a
smaller/low-profile battery to fit within the existing bottle cage.
At least it will be easy to transfer between bicycles...

Dave



On my mountain bike I mount the battery in this location. I use a piece of
high density foam to stop the battery from chafing the frame and simply use
gaffer tape to hold it all in place. It looks a bit rough but it works. I
use a four amp hour gel cell.

Marty

I tried a prototype aluminum 'cage' attached to my frame. Ultimately,
I felt that there was too much deflection caused by slight lateral
forces (i.e. pushing sideways on the battery....I figure that if the
aluminum cage was deflecting that much, then the aluminum frame it is
attached to would eventually experience failure.

Back to the drawing board. I think it may be simply a
smaller/low-profile battery to fit within the existing bottle cage.
At least it will be easy to transfer between bicycles...

Dave



On my mountain bike I mount the battery in this location. I use a piece of
high density foam to stop the battery from chafing the frame and simply use
gaffer tape to hold it all in place. It looks a bit rough but it works. I
use a four amp hour gel cell.

Marty

On 19 Oct 2004 12:22:12 -0700, (Borrall
Wonnell) wrote:

I tried a prototype aluminum 'cage' attached to my frame. Ultimately,
I felt that there was too much deflection caused by slight lateral
forces (i.e. pushing sideways on the battery....I figure that if the
aluminum cage was deflecting that much, then the aluminum frame it is
attached to would eventually experience failure.

Back to the drawing board. I think it may be simply a
smaller/low-profile battery to fit within the existing bottle cage.
At least it will be easy to transfer between bicycles...

Dave



On my mountain bike I mount the battery in this location. I use a piece of
high density foam to stop the battery from chafing the frame and simply use
gaffer tape to hold it all in place. It looks a bit rough but it works. I
use a four amp hour gel cell.

Marty

Not necessarily. The cage is flexing, meaning that the frame bosses
aren't, probably.


Michael J. Klein
Dasi Jen, Taoyuan Hsien, Taiwan, ROC
Please replace mousepotato with asiancastings
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