My V4S is now 3 and a half years old and the original Yuasa battery is toast - which is a little frustrating since it's been on trickle charge since new and let me down when I took it for its first MOT - not to worry... Now in winter storage and ready to come out in a month or so I'm looking at a replacement. I have had one (rather more humble) Lithium battery in the past which I didn't get on with because it hated the cold weather and it was on my winter hack, so in my mind I'd kind of given up on them. (it also didn't have anything like the same AH capacity as a Pb / AGM etc.. ) But in researching a replacement battery for my 2022 MTS V4S just now the Antigravity AT12BS-HD-RS pops up as being a high end (certainly very costly) Lithium battery replacement with very high CCA and 16AH to boot. (and their special Restart feature) Does anyone have real world experience of these with a Multistrada or similar bike? I may not typically use the bike in winter but I certainly don't want to restrict my usage just because it won't start properly in sub-zero temperatures..
i replaced my gsxr track bike battery with a lithium one but as advised to change the reg/rec as well as its an older bike, never had a problem and it has always started on the button.
Absolutely not worth it. If you want a lithium chemistry battery for the higher CCA, Skyrich is a good option. Just my opinion, a battery maintainer is better than a trickle charger. Buy yourself a NOCO 2 from Halfords. Andy
I think, if you look into it, Ducati specifically recommend not to use a Lithium battery on the MultiStrada V4 range due to the battery’s proximity to the rear cylinder bank exhaust manifolds and excessive heat.
Now that's quite a compelling reason for staying with the OEM Yuasa. And you can buy almost six of them for the cost of one Antigravity! I was being swayed partly by the 16Ah capacity as well and the fancy Restart system. I looked at Skyrich too but they only go up to 10Ah. I did say trickle charger ... mine is an Optimate 4 which I thought was a proper conditioner. I do also own a Noco Genius in a cupboard somewhere (which does do Lithium). But here is where the thinking comes from... OEM £55.00; standard Lithium (with lower Ah) anywhere from £70 to £150; Skyrich around £200 and Antigravity around £310 but with higher AmpHours as well. So maybe there's a little Emperor's new clothes about this. Added to that my own personal winter experience a few years ago as mentioned in my original post .. I'll save my money and get the Yuasa!! Thank you guys for helping me come to the rational decision!
The UK Antgravity importer is just down the road from me and I bought a Restart from them about 4 years ago for my KTM. When he showed me it I thought it was an empty case, it was so light. And then it was tested at 410 Amps in front of me. Pretty amazing. And the Battery Management System built in to them is amazing, with the Restart function, if the remaining charge drops below a certain level the battery turns itself off, and you push a button to turn the battery back on and there is enough left in it to start the bike. This was handy on my KTM and I moved it from my 2019 to my 2022 and ran it for the whole time I had it. And because Lithium batteries naturally sit at a slightly higher voltage than lead acid it really helped the starting on the KTM - not something that’s been an issue on any of my V4 Multis. Ducati run lithium batteries on several V4 Panigales, Streetfighters and the Multistrada RS without any problems. My 2024 has one in it, but I don’t think it came out the factory with one. The biggest thing I would agree with, especially compared to the Antigravity, is the price. Unless you have good reason I would just go OEM.
Had an Antigravity on my MV Agusta, still have it sitting in a cupboard and give it a charge every now and again. No complaints and if it fitted the 1260 Mutley it would be installed. Unfortunately it's too wide.
