As a rule of thumb, I'm happy to get 5 years out of a Yuasa battery (kept on maintenance charger). My Triumph Scrambler gave me over 6 years before showed signs of fading, so that's a bonus. Last year my 1260 Multi battery seemed to lose a bit of "umph" when throwing the engine over but still worked. Not used over winter and last night I put it back on the Optimate (rotate the charger between 2 bikes, week on week off) and I got the red light fail. Turned the charger off/on and same thing. Then it stayed green for a few seconds and failed again. (I didn't try and spin the engine over) The battery is 4 years and 9 months, so I'm guessing the big current draw to throw that engine over takes a toll ? My second rule of thumb is if in doubt, just buy a new battery while you have the time to shop around for a decent price and wait for it to be delivered, rather than have it fail one day and you rush of to the local dealer and pay over the odds because you need it desperately ! What do you guys get from a battery, do you try and squeeze the life out of it or just swap in a new one at the first hint of trouble ?
My 1260 is still on its original battery from April 2018 and with 58k miles, only recently started using an Optimate if I leave the bike for any length of time, started to get a bit paranoid about it potentially failing, so I now take a battery pack with me when I go out. My 1198SP was still on it's original Yuasa after 11 years.
Lead acid chemistry batteries deteriorate over time due to sulphation (horrible word) and the thing about this process is, it can be slowed down or accelerated depending on how you look after the battery when not in use. This article from Yuasa keeps it simple, https://academy.gs-yuasa.eu/wp-cont...ead-acid-battery-failure-modes-overview-1.pdf. Andy
JMT lithium batteries in all my bikes....the only one thats ever failed was when my front ended my zed into a ford focus and the repair place deliberately left the ignition on...which fucked the battery up....longest ive got in service is my old RSV4 factory which is still rocking the same JMT from 7 years ago....started up on the button on sunday after 5 months in the garage...
a lot more detail here* :- https://www.power-sonic.com/blog/what-is-a-sulfated-battery-and-how-do-you-prevent-it/ Lead acid battery manufacturing quality has much diminished in 50 years (my opinion only) - the "gauge" and quality of lead, the main ingredient being the biggest factor. I can remember car batteries easily lasting 10 years and were often salvageable even when heavily discharged. 5 years seems to be an acceptable time period for the average motorcycle battery nowadays, and will fair better if "exercised" regularly. * i'm surprised that world renowned battery manufacturer Yuasa would issue such a brief summary "overview".
7 years out of my last one on a cbr1000rr but that was always on an optimate and the bike used every day. Not thinking I’ll get anything near that with the one in the panigale at the moment though as seems lazy already
I'm in that camp, with cars and bikes. I have the battery changed every 5 years in the car and 4 in the bike. Yes I could get a year or two more out of each but as you say it'll then fail when you least want it to.
