small triangle dolphin style battery

[chibi-sphere]

Hi,

Just made the decision to have my road bike converted to an e-bike. I'm a little person and so the triangle on my bike is small. The dolphin shaped battery I'm looking at (16aH panasonic) just fits in the triangle, but an extra hole will have to be drilled. I'm a little worried about having holes drilled in my bike and I'm worried that getting a drill in around the other tubes might result in a wonky hole being drilled. In addition the profile of the tubing is such that it comes to a very sharp point, much narrower than the mount for the battery, so I'm worried that the battery won't be properly supported.

The alternative is to buy a cargo rack, drill holes in that and attach the battery mount to that. Would that be naff?

what do you think?

 

[Ozzzz]

Drilling holes isn't such a big deal but i'm about to attach a shark pack the same, limited room/ a bit hesitant, and found some alternatives.
You can drill through the base plate body, then use either extra pipe clamps or zip ties. I'm not sure if the metal part is mostly heat sink?
someone mentioned drilling extra holes through that as well?

 

[docw009]

I don't care to drill the frames, especially if alloy. It's not hard to add am extra clamp on a battery cradle. Shape the steel band so it fits in the slot. Use a short sheet metal screw thru one of the slots or a cut off a longer screw after it's installed,

 

[chibi-sphere]

Oh interesting! I like that idea.

Does anyone have any opinion on the shape of the tube?

It looks something like this...

That's my dainty finger for reference.

 

[LewTwo]

I recently installed a Shark battery pack on the downtube of a aluminium frame and faced a similar problem. I had to add two new fastener positions. I got round the drilling a hole problem by coming at from both sides with a set of smaller bits (started at 3/32). After I got it to 1/4 I then used a step-bit and wrench to ream the hole out to 9/32 for the 5mm insert. There was not room to get a proper insert tool inside the frame. I used a long 5mm bolt, nut, 3 washers and bit of flat bar to set the inserts. That worked surprisingly well.

The big mistake I made was trying to use aluminum inserts rather than steel. The aluminum inserts simply do not have adequate strength to avoid stripping the threads. I had to replace them with steel inserts.

 

[Samd]

Where do you want to drill the hole? At your fingertip in the photo?
I am a mech eng with a lot of frame mods. Show me the location and I can give you a call.

You'd be putting a rivnut back in the hole though?

 

[chibi-sphere]

Thanks Sam and Lew.

I guess the hole would be about where my finger is in the picture, I was just putting my finger there to show how narrow the tube is where the bottle sits.
The plan is to get the kit fitted at Adelaide's "ebike superstore". Sam, would you be happy for the technician there to give you a ring and discuss options?
You're too far apart to be competitors afterall.

 

[Samd]

Sure get him to drop an email via the BEB site. He will need an m5 rivnut and a rivnut gun.