where to put the battery to balance the bike?

Joined
Apr 25, 2014
Messages
2,782
Location
Sausalito
the motor isn’t centered and hangs off the drive side of the bike to get to the chain line as is common with a mid-drive. I want to put the batteries on the other side of the frame so weighted evenly on each side. I assume it's worth doing although far from I crucial. My question is if i were to shift weight to the left side of the frame wont it make a difference if it's higher or lower? if my batteries are hanging off the left on the top tube to counter the motor weight that hangs to the right under the knees, is that helping, or making it more imbalanced in turning or some way?
 
A suggestion would be to make up something that is equal to the weight of your battery, or use the battery itself, and mount it temporarily to different places that you think might work and ride the bike to see how handling is effected.
 
Bigwheel said:
A suggestion would be to make up something that is equal to the weight of your battery, or use the battery itself, and mount it temporarily to different places that you think might work and ride the bike to see how handling is effected.

The battery is big and not easy to do a trial on the bike exactly. Could do an experiment with something similar but rather find the physics behind it and go from there.

The battery is 73mm wide and the cells are 65mm and I can pot the cells to the side to counter the extra drive side weight of the motor easily if it’s worth doing

The weight of the motor and cells are almost on the same level so my question relating to height of the balancing weight isn’t so relevant in my situation but just wondering
 

Attachments

  • F66CA088-82E1-4068-B4F0-EA3A40395D38.png
    F66CA088-82E1-4068-B4F0-EA3A40395D38.png
    2.3 MB · Views: 537
  • 9601191D-88E7-46E5-8514-4E05A6687759.jpeg
    9601191D-88E7-46E5-8514-4E05A6687759.jpeg
    6.4 MB · Views: 537
  • 37D39445-C72A-40DD-89AD-87431749E0B2.png
    37D39445-C72A-40DD-89AD-87431749E0B2.png
    1.8 MB · Views: 537
  • AF5FC840-DF8B-4494-B1C2-EF932FCFDA69.jpeg
    AF5FC840-DF8B-4494-B1C2-EF932FCFDA69.jpeg
    7.1 MB · Views: 537
I've always wondered how weight on one side or another affects the bike's handling, once you're on the road. I see a lot of bikes with a basket or pannier that's mounted on one side of the rear cargo rack, loaded with a big bag of groceries, but they seem to be tracking straight/upright while riding down the path. At the same time, my bike could lean one way or the other if my butt isn't centered on my seat. Some of the dynamics related to bicycles are a mystery to me. :shock:
 
It’s surely not important but when given the option to possibly make it balanced I

On all my bikes when looking down riding no-handed I can see the bike is not perpendicular I guess due to non-symmetry of my body or even the tiny weight of the drivetrain or misaligned of the bike.
 
E-HP said:
I've always wondered how weight on one side or another affects the bike's handling, once you're on the road.

It doesn't, to any significant degree.

I'd definitely center the battery pack to prevent one leg rubbing on it if possible. But then, I think the triangle is a terrible place to put the battery for just that reason. Having something wide between your knees at top tube level promotes bad pedaling form.
 
Hummina Shadeeba said:
It’s surely not important but when given the option to possibly make it balanced I

On all my bikes when looking down riding no-handed I can see the bike is not perpendicular I guess due to non-symmetry of my body or even the tiny weight of the drivetrain or misaligned of the bike.

I've come to the conclusion that an extra or missing washer on the inside of the dropout, when using a hub motor, makes a difference on how the bike tracks. Slight differences in how the wheel is centered seem have a noticeable effect. Fine tuning the dropouts so the wheel is perfectly plumb also made a difference.
 
I’m a fan of lots of leg room as this bike shows.

The battery is 73mm wide and will be centered in the frame regardless. I can pot the 65mm cells to the different sides of the casting n ultimately have the cells on one side and resin on the other more so. Cells off-center in the casting. Past castings I did with hub motors the cells were off-center and of course no problem when riding and not a thought. But if could the get bike horizontal when riding no handed that sounds ideal.

I’ll try weights on my regular bikes and see if can even get straight no-handed on a regular bike.

Is ur bike frame aligned with u or the ground when ur riding no-handed?!


I’d like to take it to get aligned for a clean slate on tracking and another possibility
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    2.8 MB · Views: 514
Back
Top