Since spring will be here before I can be ready for it, I’m gearing up the bike (Canyon Grail AL 2x11) for commute and bike-packing adventures this year. As a true BLFer, I’m putting together ideas for the whole lighting situation. What this post is about is battery pack solutions. I’m realizing there just really isn’t a way to get that much capacity/energy securely and compactly strapped to my handlebars, nor do I like any non essential weight in that area either. I have a few Yinding lights that are fine stock, but are inevitably going to get some HiCRI emitters. I’m also going to build some custom, low output mules (maybe a small fresnel) as “ground effect” lighting that’ll illuminate things directly below me (from the crank to the front axle). What this means is that I’m going to need a decent sized pack, mounted somewhere on the front half of the frame.
I’ve thought about this on and off for a few days, and have a bunch of different ideas, but curious what might be out there. I know I should probably join MTBR for this kind of topic, but giving this a shot here…
Paths I could go down are:
Build my own pack from new cells, tab welded and with balance leads for connection to my hobby charger
Tool pack converters
Pre-made packs
Cell carriers/power banks
Features that I think would be nice and/or necessary. Again, I could DIY, but life and ADHD usually keeps anything complex from ever getting done…
Waterproof and reasonably impact resistant (rock strikes/crashes)
USB output
Good BMS (aka ANY form of BMS)
Bike friendly packaging (bottle cage mounting?)
Secure but convenient to remove