Carrying spare battery

[TAZMANIMAN]

I have drop down panniers on our trunk packs. The weight of the battery and bouncing a lot was what I needed to address. I found a dense foam that I cut pieces to set in the bottom so that the battery wasn't pressing directly on pannier material and possibly wear. I then ran a long strip of Velcro around the pannier and my rack side bars and cinched it tight.
We drive a lot of rail trails and not all are smooth. This method would still slowly tug our trunk bags down after long rides (which is the purpose of two batteries) and I wasn't satisfied.
After brainstorming some more I found that an old school metal water bottle holder could be bent out about 1/2 inch and my battery end could slip right in . I mounted the bottle holder to the rack side at just the right height so that when I drop the pannier I can slide the battery in with the foam the battery doesn't touch the metal bars of the holder and now once the pannier with the battery is strapped in it doesn't move a bit. I also have a piece of dense foam to the outside of battery in case the bike should go down on that side it would be protected.
I am very pleased with our end set-up. If we only run our single battery the foam pieces are small enough to fold the pannier up and and simply becomes part of our trunk bag. The bottle holder I leave mounted as it is out of the way.

 

[pnop]

Which begs to be asked, how do you adapt a lawnmower battery to your bike.

LOL.....good question. Spade connectors and small jumpers. If it was something I actually considered doing regularly, I would come up with something more
permanent. Before my regular battery arrived I did this to make sure everything else was working. I was surprised at how far it went on the lawnmower battery.

 

[harryS]

Ryobi 40V battery . It's actually a 36V pack in the ebike world, with 20 cells inside, but it's small, so there's very little power left when it actually hits 36V. I have a 1.5AH unit from my weedwhacker. I get about 8 miles on it. My wife could get 10-12 miles. Not cost effective unless you already have the lawn tools, but if you do, it's a little bonus. It's fun to throw on the bikes once in a while (along with a real battery as a spare).

 

[pnop]

Ryobi 40V battery . It's actually a 36V pack in the ebike world, with 20 cells inside, but it's small, so there's very little power left when it actually hits 36V. I have a 1.5AH unit from my weedwhacker. I get about 8 miles on it. My wife could get 10-12 miles. Not cost effective unless you already have the lawn tools, but if you do, it's a little bonus. It's fun to throw on the bikes once in a while (along with a real battery as a spare).

View attachment 35895View attachment 35896View attachment 35897

There you go. Basically what I suggested earlier. You made a little more permanent connector than I did.

 

[Hectors Ghost]

Does anyone have a spare battery that they carry when going outside their expected range? If so, how do you carry it?

I can carry a spare 30Ah pack in a pannier but usually, if I need another 60 to 100 miles range I pull my trailer and the solar panel.

2 new items by Brian Bassett

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[Luv2ride]

I use a Topeak MTS Bag strapped to my rack and doubly secured with zip ties. I usually carry two Bosch 500 batteries in the bag with no problems.

Prepare to Ride

PREPARE TO RIDE

www.topeak.com

 

[john peck]

Does anyone have a spare battery that they carry when going outside their expected range? If so, how do you carry it?

Recent developments in battery technology may give our batteries 4x the capacity yet charge in a few minutes.
furthermore, they may become 50% lighter. In the past some large corporations 'occasionally' purchased
'innovative' & practical patents & tossed 'em in the trash. These times demand that such ideas should not be wasted.
A fresh & benign industrial revolution is imperative.

 

[Hectors Ghost]

Recent developments in battery technology may give our batteries 4x the capacity yet charge in a few minutes.
furthermore, they may become 50% lighter. In the past some large corporations 'occasionally' purchased
'innovative' & practical patents & tossed 'em in the trash. These times demand that such ideas should not be wasted.
A fresh & benign industrial revolution is imperative.

Maybe... hopefully... they already have doubled or tripled the Amp-hours with the weight staying about the same. But do you want to wait for something better, or just ride? Ride safe.

 

[john peck]

Maybe... hopefully... they already have doubled or tripled the Amp-hours with the weight staying about the same. But do you want to wait for something better, or just ride? Ride safe.

I'll ride while I wait. Hopefully I won't trash this bike before the next evolution. I've re-engineered my rack to
carry a spare between panniers up high behind my thighs, my front bar bag serves as a faring as well to reduce drag.
As for 'ride safe', I'm a big chicken in any traffic having been mangled a time or two. Nothing quite like
coming to in a pool of your own blood to inspire caution.

 

[steve mercier]

I'll ride while I wait. Hopefully I won't trash this bike before the next evolution. I've re-engineered my rack to
carry a spare between panniers up high behind my thighs, my front bar bag serves as a faring as well to reduce drag.
As for 'ride safe', I'm a big chicken in any traffic having been mangled a time or two. Nothing quite like
coming to in a pool of your own blood to inspire caution.

Can I see a picture of this ? The rack not the blood.

 

[Sierratim]

As far as carrying a spare battery, @Stefan Mikes has reported good results with the Ortlieb Commuter Insert in his panniers, https://www.ortlieb.com/usa/commuter-inserts-for-panniers?___store=us_en&__from_store=us_en .

I've borrowed my wife's battery at time or two. I carry it in my Ortlieb Classic pannier with custom cut foam inserts and velcro straps to hold it in place.

 

[steve mercier]

Here is what I am using on my full suspension bike. The box is the bottom half of a Klickfix tour box lined with styrofoam and bungeed with the Bibia dual rubber bungee and then cross bungeed with a generic cord.

 

[steve mercier]

 

[steve mercier]

Then covered with the rain cover from my handlebar bag. the rack is the Topeak M2

 

[john peck]

Can I see a picture of this ? The rack not the blood.

I have tried load pictures from an obsolete olympus; I have tried to load pictures from two different 1080's.
I cant get anything to take. My cheap laptop cannot ,for any known reason, digest them. I've oodles of
older pictures entombed in two old Dell's that died violent deaths. I would love to show you pictures, but....

 

[AleksR]

Does anyone have a spare battery that they carry when going outside their expected range? If so, how do you carry it?

I have a supercharger2. Extra battery is in the frame

 

[Hectors Ghost]

I have a supercharger2. Extra battery is in the frame

1000Wh in both is like having a single battery but you Do have 2.

 

[6zfshdb]

Does anyone have a spare battery that they carry when going outside their expected range? If so, how do you carry it?

I built this aluminum box for my spare battery and as an added benefit, mounted a Bontrager interchange rack on top. This way, I can use my Bontrager trunk bags and other compatible accessories.





I use this setup for long rides on smooth surfaces. For rough trails, I carry the spare battery in a pannier to keep the center of gravity lower.

 

[Hectors Ghost]

I built this aluminum box for my spare battery and...

Nice work... but. The battery weight should be as low as possible at all times for the best center of gravity possible especially if you are going to load more gear on top of the pile. Using aluminum is going to cause a problem the 1st time you drop the bike and the case takes an impact, even worse when you put a pack in a pannier and have an unplanned stop. The bike frame doesn't look like it gives you much of an option, however. Ride safe.

 

[CdnShaun]

Built this bike last year. Building a better bike currently and will share in July when it's complete. Until the new bike is complete, this is my daily driver:

Ibera Rear Rack, Top Bag and Panniers added to my Giant Toughroad SLR 2 using a Bionx D500 rear hub motor. On my longest rides I carry:

-2 Bionx batteries in each Pannier and 1 on the downtube for 5 total.
-2 bottles in the holders, 4 more in the top bag for a total of 6 (710ml, 25oz) bottles.
-Food, tools and small items in the Top Bag.

Having the weight of the batteries down as low as possible has worked really well for me. Stable up to 40kmph pedalling hard and 55-60kmph going down 10-12% grade hills.

This setup and combination helps me ride out for 100-140kms with around 800-1,200m of elevation each time. As I become more fit I believe 160-170kms (100-110 miles) is within my reach on this setup.

The Bionx batteries fit better 'together' as a pair in the panniers than when I initially took only 3 total (1 per pannier). Thanks to this thread I'm looking into foam inserts to help better protect the batteries from the occasional bumps I do encounter on my rides.