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
On the output side, the wires were also very thin and definitely not up to the calling for 5-10A that I use on “kill-mode” - aka speeds above 30-35mph or off-road descents.