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Bike Seat Blog

Companion Cargo Rack

11/23/2014

1 Comment

 

I met a gentleman at Interbike this year who was interested in our bike seat more for the load-bearing capacity than the ability to provide an extra seat for a passenger. He stored the batteries for his ebike in a Topeak bag on an MTX bike rack; the problem was the weight of the batteries would bend the rack after only two or three rides, so he was going through bike racks almost once per month! I knew that our bike seat frame was more than strong enough to support the load of the batteries, but I needed to make some modifications to make it work for him as a cargo rack.
Companion Cargo Rack prototype
First, I needed to remove the seat cushion and the stash-box from the top of the bike seat frame. Once those were removed, I used a rivet tool to affix the lock directly to the frame (since it feeds through the stash-box for our bike seats). 
Companion Cargo Rack securely fastened to cargo bag
Next steps were to figure out a way to securely mount his existing Topeak bag to the top of the bike seat frame (aka. Companion Cargo Rack). I decided to make a custom base-plate for the bag that would fasten to the cargo rack, locking in place using the existing lock. After putting together some design sketches, I picked up some supplies at the local hardware store and voila! I had a base plate that locked in place using the existing lock, and was more than strong enough to carry the load of the frame.
custom cargo bag base plate for Companion Cargo Rack
Companion Cargo Rack base plate design sketches

He ultimately ordered four Companion Cargo Racks and wanted a second cargo back base plate made since he has two ebikes that were both having the same problems with the Topeak racks. So I made the modifications to a couple more bike seats and his cargo racks were just about ready. The final step - installing the rack onto his ebike.
first companion cargo rack order fulfilled
I had to come up with a modified seat-post mount, since his seat had two seat posts rather than one. But taking advantage of most of the existing components, I was able to come up with a solution that worked great!
companion cargo rack installed on an ebike
companion cargo rack installed on an ebike




All in all it was a really fun project. I got to take apart our bike seats and become intimately familiar with the assembly of the bike seats (which I probably should have done years ago).
And the best part is, we have the makings of a new product line for Companion Bike Seats now: the Companion Cargo Rack! Being that our frames were load-tested at over 4,000 lbs, this is the beefiest bike rack on the market! Stay tuned for more on when we release our new cargo racks!
1 Comment
Tony
11/24/2014 05:27:24 am

Great job! Keep that mind working! Love the IPA 6pack photo bomb.

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