Fenders and battery mount with Full suspension

Hi,

For my second Ebike, I'd like to get something with full suspension (front & back). I'm looking for ideas on how to mount the battery/controller and some full fenders. Please post pictures or vids if you have them! I'll show my setup when i get done.

-S

Here's a look at what I ended up with. I spent hundreds of dollars on racks because I didn't have the benenfit of this forum. For seat post racks stay away from Delta. They are rated for 25lbs. but 18 lbs. of battery made the tubular aluminum show signs of stress.
The Axiom Rack that mounts to the rear triangle would work, but the torsional effects of the weight on the rear triangle wants to make it move independently of the frame. Feels bad. Old Man Mountain makes another such rack but better quality.
What I did was triangulate a Topeak seatpost rack. I used a seatpost clamp with rack mounts and ran steel bars from this to the mounts for the side frames for pannier bags. This is located beneath the main bar of the rack so it keeps it from shifting from side to side and takes some load off the seatpost clamp. A Topeak MTX bag will hold either a 10 Ah Ping with some room or a 15Ah with very little leftover and would probably hold a 20 Ah Ping with the top expanded but would be a bit much. Hope this helps.

My solution was very similar to crash machines.

Starting with a frame with a reasonably strong construction of the seat post area, the next step was to strengthen the seatpost. I got lucky and found a broomstick just the right diameter to shove inside the seatpost. Now that the seatpost is pretty strong, I got a nice beefy seatpost rack with pannier attachments. Lastly, two struts made from electrical conduit bolt to the rack, and the bottom end of the seatpost, forming a nice strong triangle to support the rack, and help keep from bending the seatpost. It could easily hold a person now, but that much weight would likely crack the frame.

For fenders, on the rear I like to cut a piece of foam anti fatique mat into a strip about 3 inches wide, and secure it under the rack to make a soft fender. I bought mtb front fender for the front forks. Mostly I just run it with only the rear fender. I don't ride much in rain.

Here's a 3-link rack for rear suspension that was discussed a while back. When the wheel goes up from hitting a bump, the rack end would go down, but only about 1/4th the travel of the rear axle movement. That way road shock would be much softer on the rack than the axle, plus half the weight is supported by the frame...

Something like that above rack would be dead simple to build up even for those with little skilz tools or machinery.. Using female rose end joints for the pivot points, threaded rod for the 'tubing' and an extra seat clamp to attach it to the post. You could even get 'fancy' and buy some aluminium tube slightly larger ID than the OD of the threaded rod and slip it over the top for a clean looking finish. The whole adding unsprung weight is a big negative to the whole concept IMHO but easily done none the less...

KiM

Crash Machine said:

What I did was triangulate a Topeak seatpost rack.....

Click to expand...

Crash Machine,

On your second picture... how are those two pieces connected (The steel bar froming the bottom of the triangle and the second seat post clamp)?

Looks like a good setup

The seatpost clamp is a Dimensions clamp that has rack mounts built in installed upside down. Most of my stuff comes from Jensonusa.com. The only drawback is that I can probably only run a 2.0 size tire and my suspension is up pretty tight limiting travel a bit but it doesn't rub at all .I mainly stay on the road. I still don't go much above 25 lbs. but I've had a bit more weight(15lbs. more) without any trouble. Also towards the middle of the steel bars I drilled holes and then cut aluminum tubing to fit between them. Then I just found some long bolts that went all the way through the steel bars and the tubing. This helped keep the bars from spreading apart and adds further structural support.