Xipi Cubes

[103Alex1]

Question for Frank really - what's the width (across the top tube) of the cubes used on your kits ?

Being metal they are, rather like my box (which admittedly is housing a bunch of voltage controllers as well as the actual battery and controller and uses the whole triangle), rigid sided and only rather lightly rounded at the edges.

My initial feelings from sitting on my bike with a box installed are that this is bang in the potential contact zone between inner thigh and box ! Since I intend to do a fair bit of pedaling and off-roading this isn't shaping up quite as well as I'd hoped. I'll only know when it's fully installed if I'm going to get away with it but interested in the dimensions of your boxes for comparison ... as it's only in the top tube / seat tube zone that you get this possible issue.

 

[banbury frank]

Hi Alex

The Kube is 135 mm wide fitted with 45 amp controller and 48 volt 15 ah battery it is 160mm high 160 mm deep 135 mm wide all the connectors are mounted inside the Kube

Frank


we make a 10 AH battery Kube and a 20AH battery Kube

 

[mountainsport]

Hi Alex

The Kube is 135 mm wide fitted with 45 amp controller and 48 volt 15 ah battery it is 160mm high 160 mm deep 135 mm wide all the connectors are mounted inside the Kube

Frank


we make a 10 AH battery Kube and a 20AH battery Kube

That is great Frank, but adding to Alex's question, therefore you are also saying that the kube is rigid enough to cope or withstand the continuous rough bumpy off road terrain?

Mountainsport

 

[103Alex1]

Thanks a lot Frank - I am reassured (in a way at least !) .. mine is 130mm wide max finished and therefore a fraction narrower.... so at least I know I haven't wound up with something wider by using wood.

However ... I will have to see about my seatpost because my shorts easily make contact with the box when I sit on the bike and pedal (backwards - as it's not yet fully secured !). I guess it would be the same with your Kubes. Not something I was banking on - it's more pronounced if you simulate cornering etc.

I am guessing now that off-roading would be limited. Not because of securing the box - I have made it to about 0.1mm precision tight fit on both top tube and down tube sides after MANY hours of work, also using 3 bottle screws with metal bracing plates epoxied on for anti-shear and will have a bracket over top tube too near the nose. No, despite all that it's rather that a triangle box feels like it'll get in the way of your agility on the bike on account of its size and proximity to the seat tube. Not something I've ever read about or seen discussed.

The bike is within the range for my inside leg, however a bit like my Kalkhoff I like to have the seatpost down or else I struggle a lot when stopped and there's no kerb to rest my foot on - controlling a bike stationary on tiptoe is a bit too much on a heavy bike when you are small and light like me. This seems to make it worse.

Am thinking it would likely be the same with a big battery in a bag - just substituting nylon for ally or glosstex. It's an odd feeling - a bit like riding a horse lol. I can't imagine I'll want to go very far on it if this is what having these boxes means ... or else I will finally have to cave in and wear lycra after making all those jokes about it - and buy some anti-chafing cream to go with it . May be a short-lived build after all - at least in my hands. After all that .

Just out of interest, has anyone else mentioned this or experienced it ? Any ideas on how to get round the issue other than raising the seatpost ?

I've eliminated all other mounting options like rack mount, backpack (when you are very slim you can barely manage a Camelbak let alone a huge battery). So it seems this is the only way round it to get a frame triangle mounted big battery without spending many thousands of pounds on a bike with battery designed in more sensitively or getting thinner LiPos / thin custom battery pack at enormous expense.

I am thinking high amp / large battery eBikes are in the end a bit of non-starter at the moment (for me) - at least until the battery sizes come right down. But it would be good to hear about anything I've not thought about which can help get something more out of this (rather tortuous and hideously expensive) experiment in hill management

 

[Scimitar]

I don't know why you made it so wide - that was the primary consideration when I made mine and kept it 75mm wide, using 3" timber as the basis. Overall, allowing for the extra thickness of ply sides, it's 90mm and doesn't come anywhere near my legs. If I'd made it 100mm (+16mm) wide I could have fitted my batteries in lying flat, but run the risk of wood/thigh interface.

 

[103Alex1]

I don't know why you made it so wide - that was the primary consideration when I made mine and kept it 75mm wide, using 3" timber as the basis. Overall, allowing for the extra thickness of ply sides, it's 90mm and doesn't come anywhere near my legs. If I'd made it 100mm (+16mm) wide I could have fitted my batteries in lying flat, but run the risk of wood/thigh interface.

Because your batteries are obviously thinner than mine (or evidently Frank's). It's the only way to accommodate a removeable access panel, fittings, battery, a minimal amount of padding and still be able to accommodate the battery. One of the 1st questions I asked before ordering was the dimensions - but couldn't get the dimensions and was told either long & thin or short & fat - and I'd have to wait & see what I got.

I also expressed serious reservations when trial fitting in the frame (never having done anything remotely like this before) and also trying to work out how to accommodate controller - but was mocked for making a big deal out of nothing. I've wound up going to within 1mm of the frame sides even having cut a load of metal brackets off the controller.

It's not something anyone else has highlighted before the event as a down the line implication - only after. So I am highlighting it for anyone else who may be thinking about doing this. I also posted on my thread that would be 13cm wide ages ago. It didn't solicit any responses or comments.

There's not much point being wise after the event lol. I am stuck with it and will finish the box. I have skinny thighs like skinny everything else and so I may be OK. But anyone vertically challenged in the leg division and well endowed in the quad division would likely have a serious issue to deal with ! In the end one's gut instincts are often right and in this case it seems mine were all along.

 

[103Alex1]

Hi Alex

The Kube is 135 mm wide fitted with 45 amp controller and 48 volt 15 ah battery it is 160mm high 160 mm deep 135 mm wide all the connectors are mounted inside the Kube

Interesting to compare too ... 720Wh battery + a 45A controller = 135 x 160 x 160 including box in Xipi's Kube.

My 720Wh BMS battery alone is 90 x 155 X 210 (leaving only 20mm width either side for padding / cabling / box sides which is not at all excessive - I was advised to leave an inch preferably at the start, which I cut down). On top of that the 30/45A KU123 controller is 90 x 45 x 155 ... so it can't fit under the battery without interfering with the cranks.. it has to go further up the downtube in the nose of a triangle. It has been a considerable achievement to make the box accurately enough to get things in and out at all with 1mm or less margin for error in critical areas.. everything has been stretched to the absolute limits of what's realistic. I definitely won't be trying this again with those components !

Saw a load of new bikes at Go Outdoors yesterday. What was obvious was how small their triangles were compared to mine. My battery and controller combo would likely not have realistically fitted in any of them. So it is definitely something to very seriously consider when choosing your components parts if you intend on doing an in-frame mount. A Kube may be feasible where a BMS shrinkwrap / KU123 is not. However in either case, you may be looking at a 13+cm wide box under your legs.