Battery Alternative

Besides the Weight Savings, Im sold on the EXTRA Amp/Hour Rating & the CCA's :eek1

Im liking mine, I don't have to worry about putting it on the tender. ( that seems to be how i kill batteries, I never bother plugging them in. )

I looked at TurnTech? as well for Lithium options, but they were more expensive, less amp hours and the bigger ones were not in a sweet package like the shorai ( they were just some heatshrinkwrap )

That seemed to be my problem too - or so I thought - until I started plugging them into a Battery Tender religiously, with little effect on life. I say that with respect to all Lead-Acid batteries, NOT the Shorai...have yet to plug it in and so far, don't see a need(at least, on my 990...).

Don't need a "big" one. I am running the 5ah TurnTech. Amp hours are more an indication of battery reserve, not cranking power, and my "little" TurnTech works great on my 950.

My Shorai 18AH is setting in my '03, off the charger, for 6 weeks while I'm in Hawaii. It'll be a pretty good test. It was fully charged when I left (14.0v). It is fully connected, but I pulled the clock fuse to eliminate the only parasitc drain (1.5ma).

What is the next best option beside Shorai?

Keener:

You're in Canada so not sure you have these guys, but I have a Battery's Plus (their better model) that I paid $70 for in December. So far so good. It starts the bike on 30F mornings regularly. I know I'm "old school" but $70 is about the right price to pay for a battery. It's just a fricking battery for God's sake. Some of these folks are paying $200 for a Shorai (or close to it) or OEM batteries. It's a battery.

T.

+1 on the Batteries Plus AGM battery.

I've had the same battery on two bikes (originally on my 950 ADV, and now on my Super Enduro) and it's been flawless.

I do run a battery tender in the winter.

With all due respect, you're clearly uninformed about the differences - AGM lead acid batteries are indeed "old school" and the contrast is starkly lesser when compared to a LiFeO2 battery in any of the critical parameters - cranking power, weight, self-discharge rate, and size; in order of priorities(top to bottom).

Hil:

I concede all of the facts that you stated are true, 100% true about the difference between the old and new style batteries. So I am not "uninformed". And I am an engineer by trade.

The point I was trying to make, sort of, is that it's just a battery. Meaning, to me, all it is required to do is to start the motor when I turn the key and push the start button. I don't care if it's made of unobtanium, marshmallow peeps, or lead from recycled space shuttles. To me, it's just an energy source that starts my bike. Once my bike is started then the fun begins and I move on. I am not in love with my battery and don't care what it is made of. It just needs to start my bike.

I weigh a little > 200 lbs. My 950, I'm guessing as I don't know, weighs about 500 pounds. So I could care less if my battery weighs 2 lbs instead of 8 as it's so irrelevant in the bigger picture FOR ME, that I don't care. But what does matter to me is I can get a battery for $70 that will likely work for 1-2-3 years and get me on the road to having fun with my bike.

Summary:

- The battery is the tool that makes my bike come to life. It's not the part of the bike that makes me have fun. I don't care about it any more than I care about the color of the gasoline I use.

Tom

I get where you're coming from. However, a few things that appeal to me about the Shorai: not having to worry about charge, as I store the bike outside (no battery tender), sometimes without use for a few weeks; the good aH for accessories; the good CCA for winter starts. There are other batteries that offer this. Cheap batteries have pissed me off sufficiently in the past (failures, insufficient CCA, battery tenders needed etc.) for me to want a Shorai, but if it ain't broke at $70 don't fix it, I get that.

What does being an engineer have to do with it? That description sounds a lot more logical to me than your first comment.

Having had five different AGM lead acid batteries over ~35,000 miles strand me in various ways over about 3 years, even after having been tended with a genuine BatteryTender during anything longer than a few days of sitting, I welcome the stability and steadfastness of the Shorai. I don't live in extreme cold but I do ride often and make short, hot trips in the desert heat; AGM batteries just do not tolerate it well.

On my 450EXC, getting rid of ~3+ pounds hanging nearly out at the end of the subframe yielded a perceptable difference in agility and handling. On the Adventure I have a Shorai in, yes, the difference is a small percentage but it can't hurt either.

I just asked a simple question guys. What is the next best option?

Say Shorai reminds me of my mother in law.

Hil:

I mentioned being an engineer to mean that I am used to working in environments with lots of choices. I happen to be an IT engineer and work with satellites, servers, networks, complex storage arrays, etc.. in a new technology group within HP. I/We see a LOT of vendors tooting their horns for new features and ideas that may be beneficial to someone in some vertical niche, but often have no added benefit to what we intend to do with the product. In that case, Nice-To-Have is a lot different than Must-Have.

I will certainly agree that the Shorai is likely to be the new best thing. Its light, fits well, and so far most of the evidence shows it works. I have followed this thread and others like it with interest since getting my 2nd 950 last December and my bike came with a dodgy battery. And I was just about ready to pull the trigger on a Shorai when I heard that they were coming out with a new version with stronger terminals, etc.. At that point I just needed a working battery and YellowPig (who I trust his judgement) and others said the Battery's Plus was fine so I grabbed one. And it was cheap. And I was pimping my 950 and sending my paycheck each week to KTM Twins and Touratech and Blackdog and .....

Because I am literally bombarded with new technology at work on a daily basis I tend to "hang back" a bit. Being an early adopter is not in my nature any longer. I'll let others do that. I like to be Leading Edge and not Bleeding Edge.

Glad the Shorai works on your lightweight KTM as that makes total sense.

I remember my dad paying over $800 because he just HAD to have a CD player when they first came out. Two years later I had one too, for $125 and mine was better than his. I am patient.

Tom

Where would you get this Shorai in EU, or one similar, anyone in UK know?

Hil:

Also forgot to mention I live in Colorado where it does get cold. Even in the summer it's not unexpected to get 30-40F in the mountains. So, the cold start "thing" with the Shorai is a concern to me. Understand it is not to you.

tom

The cold is my main worry as well, living near arctic circle.

My bike runs on yellow Peeps...







.

Havn't had any problems starting my 950 SE with the shorai in the cold.

It was < 30F the other day and snowing and it started right up. have not tried it in below 0 temps yet, was -10F a few times at the start of winter but I didn't have the Shorai then.

Sometimes you have to crank it a few times for it to warm up.

The five-cell model:




EDIT: cell count corrected from six to five.