Zoot Katz
100 kW
This reply is late because I wanted to check the story with the mechanic who told it to me.jimw1960 said:Zoot Katz said:Gotta love those pouch packs if they fit between your cranks.
Did you reconfigure it or did Ping build it to spec?
If the box is attached only at the bottle mounts, that's about 23 lbs more than I'd feel comfortable with them holding.
I strongly suggest adding a few clamps around the top tube to carry the weight. Use the bottle mounts primarily for stabilisation and security.
You have to sort your priorities damn quick while your batt box is sliding down the road and your down tube is collapsing after the mounts rip out.
Have you heard of this happening? I'm confident that it is very secure, four steel bolts into steel mounts can handle the weight. Gravity is doing most of the work to hold things in place and not enough clearance at the top to pull the mounts straight out. The biggest concern would be shear stress if impacted from the side, but if I get hit that hard on the side, I'll have other things to worry about than my battery box. Still, I'll be sure to inspect frequently to make sure things are holding.
His bike was a 70's era Italian light-weight that he'd had chromed.
The water bottle battery for his halogen lights pulled the bottle mounts out of the steel.
The tube collapsed. It didn't happen in traffic so he's lucky.
The mechanic suspects corrosion inside the thinnest walled part of the tube may have been a factor.
He also wondered if the chroming process might have played a role.
It was a JRA incident. No curb jumping, crashing, or collisions involved. Probably just vibration.
From your description, it sounds like you're employing bottle mounts on the seat tube as well.
They should help
A simple fall over while it's parked would be the shear force from the side that most worried me.