In my attempt to shave off some weight from the old girl my first port of call was replacing bolts with titanium ones.... This proves expensive very quickly for not a massive gain. So I want to swap out the battery...... But which is 'the' brand to be going for? Any massive disadvantages with lithium aswell? FYI going on a track bike, no lights etc
Shido, try biketorqueracing or Snells, I can get them too, or even BTR on eBay, if left one trickle change buy an optimate LiPO. Otherwise they store happy for a year or so uncharged.
I put one of these on the 748 and never had any bad issues. Spins the motor up much better than the original... I'll be putting a similar one on the 848 very soon... Ducati 748 E 2001 Lithium Ion Battery YT12B-BS LithiumIon | eBay Rgds, Bob
Shido. Great battery. But get the correct LiPO Optimate. A normal Optimate can damage a LiPO battery.
I've got a Shorai 18Ah in a 1098. Works great but there are some things you should be aware of. They apparently do not work well at low temps They should be stored at a different voltage level, to normal running voltage. Think its about 70-80% charge, which does not correspond to voltage, the voltage to charge capacity relationship is non linear. This means that if the battery is on storage charge, to get it up to full whack takes a while. That said depending on capacity they may well start the bike at the storage voltage. If you discharge them below their minimum voltage level, there is a far higher chance the battery will be goosed, than with a lead acid or gel You should not use a charger on them that uses a De-sulphate program You should get a proper LiPo/LiFe charger to balance charge them (they consist of low volt cells in a parallel/series combination) occasionally for optimum life (you could try aero model shops on the web lots out there) If they get overcharged they can be extremely dodgy (Take a look at few YouTube vids) They do hold charge better than a lead Acid BUT they will still go flat at the same rate if you have a parasitic load (immobilizer, alarm or the like) like any other battery. Not saying buy Shorai but take a look on their site for a lot of good info, they are LiFe but very similar in nature to LiPo Just saying sorry if teaching me gran
I keep calling them LiPo, and rightly said they are not, they are LiFePO4 (Shido), not the same at all over a normal Li battery, whatever you choose stay with a known branded battery as some cheap cells packaged up as motorcycle batteries are floating around. Shido Batteries
During my 1098R trackbike rebuild, I asked Moto Rapido the same questions regarding a lightweight lithium battery. They advised me to stick with my lead acid as the lithium were a bit feeble in comparison. Just sayin...
Mary although I have one, I do think they are a bit more fragile. Mine works well enough but I can never get it to balance charge properly at full whack, at storage its fine. This is a replacement the last one, it wouldn't balance at storage. When this one throws in the towel I'm going to AGM a far more proven technology. I think LiFe or some other wonderful combination is the future but they have a way to go yet, IMHO. Just coz I've got it in mine doesn't mean its the best, I think forums are great because we can all learn from others experiences, good or bad John
Definitely the opposite of what they told me! The LiON battery offers more cranking amps than a normal lead acid. Very useful when running a high comp engine. Mine fires on the button every time when the old lead acid would take a couple goes.
Eeeh, the lying buggers! Perhaps I'm wrong. But I seriously doubt that. I've not been wrong since 1984, and that's when I lost the toss before a game of snooker..... Just sayin...
I threw in a " Motobatt " brand at the weekend..supposed to be good! Apparently this brand hold their amps quite welland dont need as much attention as regular batteries.
Think Motobatt are AGM, Absorbed Glass Matt same as Odyssey. I've got an Odyssey on the Guzzi and its a fab battery. These are better than gel IMHO and can usually be installed any way except upside down. They have higher CCA and will not leak if the case breaks. Your quite correct they need very little attention, Dunno about Motobatt but usually AGMs need higher charging amps to top them back up than any of the other acid types if they've been deeply discharged John
I just been speaking to a mate who deals in batteries, spoke about lithium...he warned me off Told me about fires and the makers keeping QT at the moment not sure about the validity of this just putting it out there Anyone got anything on these "fires" and faulty lithium batteries
@lovebiatcaptain Yeah just wondering and looking for feedback before I seriously consider changing to lithium
