I'm toying with upgrading /replacing my battery on the sport classic, has anyone experience with lipo or even advice re make and if it's a genuine advance and worth doing ? Mucho cheero dudes.
I have a Shido on my 748RS track bike. It maintains the same physical dimensions as the YT12 so using the same battery tray but is a fraction of the weight and delivers a higher cranking current. Spins the high compression engine a lot faster than lead acid and it fires up quicker. Not had it long but it comes with a 3 year guarantee. Andy
I went for a Magneti Marelli from an Italian seller - much cheaper. Hadn't heard of them when I ordered but I've heard a lot have purchased since I did and only good reports so far.
Got a Li Fe from Shorai. The first one developed a problem and I got in contact with Shorai, even though they said they would not support the warranty as the battery came from the US and was shipped to me, I cannot remember all the details, they did. I sent the battery back and decided to upgrade at the same time going to a LFX18A1-BS12, an 18Ah which is not shown on the site as fitting a 1098 but is the best fit of the lot and offers a lot the Ole Elek-Trickery in a box and is still stupid light compared with its lead acid counterpart. Its got enough Ooomph to start the bike from cold after an extended shut down period in the store mode. I would not advise going on what these sites tell you fits and does not fit. Measure the battery box (or space you have to mount), terminal orientation, etc: then look at the batteries dimensions The upside of them are Power density more charge in a smaller box Lighter Hold charge longer (this doesn't count if you have parasitic loads like alarms or immobilizers then they run down the same as any other) Downside If you want best life out them you need a special charger that will leave them at a stored voltage, they don't like being fully charged say over the Winter layoff. The charger also balance charges them as the battery consists of a lot of smaller batteries in series and parallel. To stop one set getting too much charge and the others too little, each individual bank need charged to balance the cells. They can lack Oomph in cold temps around freezing and below Although not requiring much attention it is wise to make sure you do not let the charge drop below a critical voltage, otherwise the chances are they will be toast, they are not quite as robust as lead acid in that respect. Ohh and fekin expensive!! Think that's about all I got, overall I'm quite pleased with the way mine has performed to date and I'd get another, if that's any recommendation
The MM instructions say they need to be stored at 2/3rds charge - the batteries have an indicator on them with three lights. When it arrived it showed 2 lights which is optimum for storing. I use an Optimate Lithium charger / maintainer on mine - it wasn't too expensive, about £55
Agree with Exige about the Optimate charger. Been using one on the original battery on my 2007 Sport Classic GT1000. The bike is connected to the Optimate between rides during the winter & fires up quickly when I go out on my weekly ride.
I considered one of these lightweight batteries, but cannot see any advantage in changing. Yes they are lighter, but would need to be more than the weight of a tank of fuel lighter for me to notice the difference.
I've always used lead acid batteries until recently. Always kept plugged into an Optimate 100% of the time when the bike is not in use. I've never had a failure of a battery. I've just put an 18a Lithium Shorai on the 1098R as I wanted the extra crranking amps at start up time. It's a fraction of the weight of the lead acid battery. It's quite a bit smaller too, so you have to use the foam packers that come with the battery to pad out the battery box. The instructions that come with it say that it is shipped with about 70% charge and recommend not to leave the battery stored at 100% charged on a tender. I've bought the lithium Optimate, but I don't know how I'm going to use it yet. I had a Nissan LEAF and the recommendation was to charge to 80% to maximise milage and the longevity of the lithium batteries. The car even had the option on the charge menu to do just this.
So how do you get it to 2/3 capacity? I'm assuming you've been riding the bike, the battery has been charging while riding and is at 100%. I'm confused.
Me too, but I think the Optimate maintains it so is a different situation, if it is long term stored they state 2/3rds - we need a guru on Electrickery such as @AirCon to comment perhaps, but it could get confusing and he might tell me I'm talking codswallop :Sorry:
If you need a special charger for these batteries what do you do about the bike? The charging system on any bike just pumps volts back into a battery after start up so how would it know what type of battery is fitted?
I did a bit of reading on the CTEK website before buying the Magneti Marelli battery and as I understand it you can use a normal charger, but don't use the trickle-mode (presumably as they don't like continually being topped up to 100%). On top of that, a lithium battery's electrical characteristics are much more similar to a lead acid car battery than a bike battery, so charge it up on 'car' mode rather than bike mode. Simples! I've run two of these all year and they've rarely needed charging (maybe twice each?) and both bikes turn over much more eagerly than they did on their previous (more feeble) lead-acid batteries. Just like garlic bread - it's the future
Yeah, lead acid technology (I use the word loosely ) has been around for over 100 years. When you think about it, it's amazing that it is still being used.
does anyone know whether the rectifier/regulator needs to be replaced in case someone goes for a LifePO4 battery ? Thanks !
90% of what has been said here is accurate the rest not. One thing that always stopped me from fitting one was the bikes own electric charging circuits. The electrical charge, float, hold and storage characteristics are very different for Lead Acid and Lipo batteries. Unfortunately the manufacturers websites are written by marketing people and not unvested electrical engineers. Lead acid batteries are NOT good at low temperatures as most of us have found in cold weather. Lipo is capable of huge currents once warm and are considerably lighter than Lead. I'm sure I went into this before somewhere.
Anecdotal evidence would suggest that these batteries give good or better performance than lead acid for all the reviews I've read, with no bike modifications. I would not use a standard battery (mains powered) charger or tender. Buy one intended for LiPo. In my experience it is the path for the electric power that is the issue. The OEM starter cables are very poor and a quality upgrade path is available which will improve both lead acid and LiPo starting. I think there is a USA based cable firm....... Only joking @Exige ....see Exact something or other.
Ctek is considered a quality company, however the English website is vague and washy. I believe it is the same company I looked at many years ago supplying chargers to the MOD. These were at a price point well above even Ducati owners wallets. Clever degaussing tech to extend the life and even refresh lead acid batteries. I own a much cheaper model (circa £300) with similar tech. LiPo is the way to go...with decent low resistance cables and joints.
