Mounting a battery under a banana seat for 2-person riding

[mrgarci1]

Hi folks. In anticipation of my new Headway pack showing up in a few days, I've got ebike upgrade fever. I've been thinking about ways to have my girlfriend ride along with me, as well as ways to mount this new battery in such a way as to keep it from getting stolen.

One possible solution I've thought up (for the battery security, anyway) is just to make / buy / modify a small hinged "cage" that fits over the top of the battery as it is currently mounted on a rear rack, which would have fittings for a padlock.

But then in thinking about how I could carry two people, I thought of the banana seat idea. So I'm wondering, has anybody tried A) sitting 2 people on a banana seat (I've never used one - the two of us weigh a combined 250 lbs max) or B) mounting a battery under such a seat?

This is all highly theoretical at this point, but my gf rode on the back of my ebike for the first time this morning (just sitting on the battery) and was very excited about it. She's terrified to ride my ebike by herself.

Any thoughts, suggestions, reasons why this is a bad idea, are all welcome.

 

[dogman dan]

we sat two on a banana seat all the time. Of course it was 1966 and we were 8 years old, maybe weighed 70 pounds. The seat was huge then. I haven't actually seen one lately, I bet it would look tiny. Seat from a junk motor scooter maybe?

 

[Dan K]

"Yeah, it was ninteen eighty something..."

er... scratch that. My apologies to those whose ears are hurt by country.

Anyway, to the original question, I've been 2 up on a banana seat with a combined weight around 250lbs as well. Of course, I too was a lot younger, as was the gal, but we got it done. Not the most comfortable arangement, but it worked.

As an alternative, some racks have enough weight capacity to carry a rider no problem. I've seen them in the city with a seat, or padding of some sort, mounted to the rack.

What kind of bike, and front or rear motor? A strong rack and pegs on the rear, assuming a front motor setup, might work?

 

[mrgarci1]

The bike is a Phat cheap-o steel beach cruiser, pictured in my avatar - front mounted BL36. Could you recommend a brand/type/keyword to search for a super-heavy-duty rear rack?

Also I'm planning on putting a heavier steel axle in the back wheel as well.

*EDIT* Pegs are also one of my favorite parts about this idea - my gf mentioned how easy they would make it to ride, and I just feel like I'm 8 again, buying a set of "buddy pegs" (that was before pegs were for grinding )

 

[Dan K]

The bike is a Phat cheap-o steel beach cruiser, pictured in my avatar - front mounted BL36. Could you recommend a brand/type/keyword to search for a super-heavy-duty rear rack?

Also I'm planning on putting a heavier steel axle in the back wheel as well.

*EDIT* Pegs are also one of my favorite parts about this idea - my gf mentioned how easy they would make it to ride, and I just feel like I'm 8 again, buying a set of "buddy pegs" (that was before pegs were for grinding )

I remember buddy pegs. These days I run 2 pegs on my BMX, both on the same side of the bike. Not ideal for carrying passengers, but quite the setup for grinding For pegs you may want to check out danscomp.com (no affiliation, they're the big-dogs in online BMX stuff).

For racks, it's all about capacity. A lot of the popular stuff is very expensive. If you want to spend a couple hundred, maybe more, on a rack, let me know and I'll search the archives for the "best of the best". The most common solution I see seems to be the Axiom Odyssee, MSRP $40. http://tinyurl.com/dn99dm Rated for 70Kg, which comes out to a bit over 150lbs. Can't beat it for the money. The usenet rec.bicycles.tech archives in google groups are a great source for this kind of info.

 

[mrgarci1]

Man, this thread has gone old-school real fast - first banana seats, then buddy pegs, and now usenet!

In all seriousness, though, thanks for the tip - I'll check that group out and see what I can find.

 

[Dan K]

Replying from my betamax...

Seriously though, r.b.t. is still alive and, if not well, at least still kicking. A lot of very knowledgeable people over there. I'm a regular. I post through google though, I've tried a few newsreaders and just prefer the GG interface, even on my linux system where it seems like using the newsreader would be a no brainer.

You may wish to post up there asking about racks. I'll be surprised if you find a much better deal than the Axiom I linked you to though, $40 for 150lbs capacity is pretty darn good. Much more capacity than that and you start spending $ exponentially.

Hey, remember when Mongoose, Schwinn and Diamond Back were all high quality bikes? Like I said in my first post of this thread... "It was ninteen eighty something". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAcivRgHU2M

 

[mrgarci1]

Yeah Usenet certainly has dropped off recently, although I still visit rec.music.phish regularly - I figured almost all the groups were defunct by now (r.m.p. certainly is a shadow of it's former self).

I gotta agree, $40 for a 150lb rated rack is a pretty smokin' deal, and I'd be really surprised to find a better one than that, but I'll do some digging in the archives and see what's what. Thanks again.

 

[dogman dan]

Actually thinking about it this time, instead of trippin down memory lane, Mabye you need to custom make, and imitate the extracycle racks. Sould actually be pretty easy for a good welder to make a steel rack you can put a nice seat onto. Illegal in my town by the way, if that matters where you live. The cops may not care, as long as nobody is riding on handlebars, which is what the law in my state is aimed at banning. All riders must have a seat bla bla bla.

 

[mrgarci1]

I would love to fab one of the Free Radical rack/longtail attachments, but I live in an apartment and don't have the tools or space to weld. Plus I doubt that this would be an ideal first welding project. I also have sent some inquiries about getting one made for me locally (as the plans are open-source), but all the quotes I've heard are just about as expensive as buying one from Xtracycle.

The legality point is a very good one, and something I hadn't yet considered. Thanks, Dog, you may have just saved me a ticket

 

[biohazardman]

Here is your seat. Wonder if you can the parts yet. Expect you could make something easy enough or go looking for the old Schwinn rerproductions parts.


http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9638

http://www.nextag.com/schwinn-stingray/search-html

 

[mrgarci1]

So my final thought on this for the night is a hybrid between two very good ideas - get one of the Axiom racks (which are adjustable height) and mount it low. Then mount a Stingray seat above that (that red and silver one is siiiiiick), with a cut-off sissy bar either mounted to or fixed on the rack. This would leave a (roughly horizontal) space between the rack and the seat where the battery would be mounted. I may have to make some changes to the angle where the seatpost and the seat connect to make that happen, and mounting the sissy bar to the rack in a load-bearing way may be difficult, but this will all be much easier to visualize and put into action once I get the battery (MONDAY!!! ) and go down to the LBS to see how the seat would actually look, and how much modification would be involved.

I'll keep you posted, and probably post some specs and link some photos of the pack as well. Thanks for the help, folks.

 

[dogman dan]

The bannana seat idea is likely to be legal, I think there may be something in my law about somewhere to put feet. Check your local state laws on bikes. If it's like my state, nearly every bike is in violation of something, like not having a bell or horn. At least we don't need a guy with a flag to walk in front of us.

 

[maydaverave]

I had a beach cruiser for a while with bmx pegs on it. It looked uh unique but the cruiser axles were not strong enough to support my weight. If you go with pegs I would recomend a high grade axle. Although I weigh about 210. If a lighter person was just using them as a foot rest and not putting all there weight on them the stock axles would probably work for a while