My battery is goosed, instead of getting one under warranty which will mean the crappy Yuassa that seems to fail on a regular basis, I intend to upgrade to a Gel unit or some such, any recommendations?
Come on, some of you must have a battery recomendation, I was not sure if I should go with a Westco gel or a Sprint lead acid.
If your so anti-battery, change the charging system, get a big capacitor, and kick away! Um, anyways, you had problems with the standard battery?
Nearly all the motorcycle batteries sold today are AGM - sealed lead-acid Absorbed Gas Mat batteries. I doubt you can even find true "gel" battery for the Adv. They're generally considered better than gels and have the same property of being sealed and having no lliquid electolyte - the lead-acid solution is absorbed in the gas mattes. So whether you got Yuasa, WestCo, Excide, etc. is not going to make any difference in the battery type - it will no doubt be an AGM. Some folks think Yuasa's are worth the extra $$$. - Mark
Are you PUI again? My battery has a cell down, from hunting about on the net it appears that the Yuassa has a life span of about 10k miles, they warranty them for twelve months, Sprint offer a 24 month warranty.
Mark is pretty much right on the button Bucky. Advanced (absorbed) Glass Mat (AGM) batteries are about as good as it gets in the size/capacity we use. So it's really a cost/availability/warranty issue for what ever is available in England. I still have the original battery after nearly 3 years and 10K miles... but I've always put it on a battery tender if it's going to sit for more than a few days. Now that I've said this, it's almost a certainty that it will fail completely within the next 10 minutes.
Was it you that caused me to get 19 e-mail notices all at once??? I thought my fuckin' 'puter exploded. Christ on a Crutch... :huh
Would be a neat trick, but I don't think it was me. Unless you get 19 more because I just posted this reply
Buck, We went round and round on the BMW Airhead list on this point. It's all AGM, not gel now. I had good luck with Panasonic AGM-same as what Westco sell relabeled. In the USA a company called Digikey sells Panasonic real cheaply. You can do a search for the 800 number and give them a call on sizes. Just put 50K tough miles on one. It is still very strong. Bill in Tomahawk, WI
Thanks, that's the kind of recommendation I like, with the battery size I know that if it fails in the back of beyond it could be a major problem so the best battery is the only way to go. I heard that the Westco was the Panasonic but need to check the model number because all they list here is gel, although I am led to believe that they are the AGM type.
There's the rub, I have over 11k miles after just over a year, my expected mileage this next year will be about 18k miles maybe more if I get my tour of Scandinavia and Iceland in.
mine is original too... gonna replace it this year just for the hell of it, but i betcha i could get another year outa it.
I got the Westco AGM, It is 10MM taller so I took the regulator off the plate and drilled two new mounting holes in the plate 10mm lower than the original ones, it all fits fine now and is working well, no problem with under seat clearance either, the Westco came in at a bargain price as well. It has a whole amp hour more as well, so I can run the new 42" plasma and surround sound navigation system.
I had one of those YTZ10S Yuasas take a sh*t on me the night before I was crossing into Mexico. The Yuasa was ~$85, this thing was $58. The El Cheapo Non-Yuasa Replacement By the way, the Yuasa is the same on as in the '00-'02 CBR600, so if you're jammed up, any Honda dealer will have one.
I always use a Battery Tender. 1990 Honda CBR1000F: sold with original battery in 1997 1998 Honda VTR1000F: sold with original battery in 2005 1982 Porsche 911: last battery (delco) lasted 9 years 2000 KTM Lc4 SM: I ain't kickin' that bitch!
i was wrenching for a friends endurance road race team last year and we bought a not oem battery for our r6 racebike and the thing spit battery acid all over the back part of the bike. really made a mess of the swing arm. turned out they are all made differently depending on the position. we bought the right battery but one that was supposed to be positioned differently. the ktm is turned almost on its side.
That's why it needs a sealed battery. The Yuassa was not designed for the KTM, it was just the right sized sealed type battery, if anything a sealed AGM battery is better because the dialectric is more stable and less prone to leakage than a totally fluid dialectric.
