The old battery is dead, long live the new battery

[BobPS]

Hi guys,

A couple of days ago my TE630 battery went dead. At first it started fine, I warmed up the bike as I put on my gloves and helmet. But when I was about to leave, put it into first it stalled. Tried to restart it wouldn't start. Tried again, not even a crank. Then the speedometer went out and so did the head light. Fortunately it happened as I was about to leave for home from the office. So I left the bike at the office and took a cab to get home.

I called the dealership to complained and to buy a new battery. I mean it's less than 6 months old, but they told me that the battery is an old one. It's the original that came with the bike in 2011. Anyway, the dealership loaned me a battery, cause they don't have a new one in stock. I have to buy it from some where else. With the loaned battery, it started right away and I rode home with no more problem. Still have to buy a new battery though.

Now my questions to you guys. The manual says the battery is 12v 14Ah, but the stock battery that's in the bike is a Yuasa YTX-14BS, which I found out later is a 12v 12Ah battery. The loaned battery is also the same yuasa battery. I did a search in this site and also found that ytx-14bs is the stock battery...
Why did they put a 12v 12Ah battery when the manual calls for a 12v 14Ah ?

A local store has a 12v 14Ah battery, Yuasa YTX-16BS, anyone has any experience with this battery? It has higher CCA than the stock one, 230 compares to 200 of the stock battery. I think the bike will start easier with it, but will it? Dimension wise, will it fit the battery tray?

Thanks in advance,
Bob

 

[268fords]

Have you thought about a lithium battery? You might not want to go back to a lead acid, just saying

 

[BobPS]

Thanks 268fords.

I thought about getting a lithium battery. There are some shops that sell Shorai here and in fact I drove to one of those shops yesterday afternoon to buy it ... but I never got there. Heavy rain from the previous night until late afternoon the next day, flooded some streets and caused massive and horrible traffic jams across the city so I turned back home.

I decided to buy another Yuasa, the YTX-14BS, same as the stock battery. The higher capacity one, the YUTX-16BS is about 1.5 cm taller than the original. I didn't think it will fit so I bought the YTX-14BS instead.

One reason I stick with lead battery is price. It's half the price of a lithium iron battery. The yuasa is about $119 while Shorai LFX21A6 is $230.

Bob

 

[Pepper]

Maybe it would last twice as long ?

 

[Muddy Waters]

Bob
The "bang for your buck" of the lithium batteries comes in the form of incredible weight saving which coincidently happen to be sitting really high on your bike
When you factor that into the equation, the lithium batteries are much cheaper then traditional batteries

More power+less weight=bigger grin factor
If you haven't bought the Yuasa yet you might want to rethink this

 

[Johnrg]

Don't sweat the decision. Go here... http://earthxmotorsports.com/. Cross reference your bike to find the battery, and then buy here... http://www.ziptyracing.com/. Lighter, stronger, supported and recommended.

 

[Theo]

I have this in my 610 ie. I weighed the OEM battery and this: the former was 4.5 - 4.55 kg, while this is 1.2 kg.
I bought it on ebay for about 160 $ + shipping.
I used it for a year and a half on the track, doing less than 1000 miles without the lights; it works fine.

 

[SimpleOne]

I put a Racing Batteries LifePo4 (the exact same one shown on ZipTyRacing) in my 08 R6 trackbike, and it is very light, but it really struggles to turn over even a 4cyl 600 street bike engine. It drops to about 8V under starting load. It's possible that I got a bit of a dud, but their claim that it starts better than a stock battery is rubbish so far in my experience.

With the LifePo4 batteries, be aware of the fact that they have relatively low Ah's compared to a similarly dimensioned lead acid battery, which is particularly relevant if you are running a lot of accessories off the battery or charging things off it at night etc.
Also be aware that you shouldn't crank them for more than 3-4 seconds when you are attempting to start the bike as the current draw heats the battery enough to damage the cell(s).

 

[268fords]

I have noticed that my bike is able to sit longer in the garage without any issues starting up. The yuasa's always felt a little sluggish after a week or so. I've yet to buy a charger for my shorai, but I should

 

[ray_ray]

No matter what battery you buy(lithium?), if you want it to last, buy a battery tender to go with it ...

 

[BobPS]

Thanks guys for the suggestions.

There's a thread on Advrider Forum about whether or not lithium battery is the right battery for adventure riding. Granted the bike that used the battery on that thread was F800GS, and it's in a sub forum for F800GS, but I learn a lot from that thread. I read the whole thread yesterday and decided to buy a lead acid battery. So I bought the yuasa battery and a charger, a Motobatt charger.

Anyway the Motobatt charger comes with a pigtail that I can use on my Monster to charge the Monster's battery... which is difficult to access cause I have to remove the gas tank to reach the battery. I never worried about charging the battery and didn't feel any need to have a charger, cause I rode my Monster everyday, all year round... but now that I have the TE, there will be times when the Monster stays in the garage. So I guess a charger is needed this time.

Thanks,
Bob

 

[ray_ray]

Thanks guys for the suggestions.

There's a thread on Advrider Forum about whether or not lithium battery is the right battery for adventure riding. Granted the bike that used the battery on that thread was F800GS, and it's in a sub forum for F800GS, but I learn a lot from that thread. I read the whole thread yesterday and decided to buy a lead acid battery. So I bought the yuasa battery and a charger, a Motobatt charger.

Anyway the Motobatt charger comes with a pigtail that I can use on my Monster to charge the Monster's battery... which is difficult to access cause I have to remove the gas tank to reach the battery. I never worried about charging the battery and didn't feel any need to have a charger, cause I rode my Monster everyday, all year round... but now that I have the TE, there will be times when the Monster stays in the garage. So I guess a charger is needed this time.

Thanks,
Bob

Sounds good on that daily riding! And for the current times, it seems that lithium is the way to go for bikes (not looking at cost) and power tools ...

I had a very normal battery on my harley and kept it on a tender yr round ... Only rode it a few times a year ... That battery lasted a few yrs ...

--
As a side note, I was riding with a friend and he was using a lithium battery ... He noticed his voltage had dropped slightly, and in the next day(I think), the battery died because his stator or something stopped his yamaha from charging ... That was his story ... Anyway, maybe little warning when these battery will just stop unless a slight voltage drop is helpful here...

PS - A few weeks back, SX rider Ryan Dungey was pushing his ktm on the track trying to start it I guess ... Maybe he should get one of this batteries also?

-

I'm going with ‘Cambridge crude' and the guys from MIT for car batteries...
http://web.mit.edu/press/2011/flow-batteries-0606.html