Small batteries

[Tankad]

Yeah, I've considered hiding mine under the seat like that. My only hesitation, is that my cafe project had one requirement. The ability with not too much work to swap my solo seat back to the stock two person seat so my wife can ride with. If I hid the battery under the seat like that, I'd have to move the battery back to stock location when the 2 person seat is needed. Seeing that I will likely not ride with a passenger but 1 to 2 times a year, moving the battery wouldn't be too much of a pain if needed.

I've got the same problem with my cafe project. my plan is to take the stock battery holder and resize it or cut it down to fit the PC 680 exactly. than get rid of the plastic battery box side covers and sheet metal the sides in.... Like below:

[Warin]

The reason you need a good (large sized) battery is due to the old design Bosch stater motor. There is a more efficent replacment (not the Valeo, the Denso) starter motor that will ease the battery requirement.

Anyone with experience with the Denso stater motor and a smaller battery?

[Beemerboff]

These cheap $100- Valeo knock offs work just fine - I have 100,000 km on mine and is is still perfect.

The cheap Motobatt Oddessy copy works at least as well as the Oddessy too, 3 years / 100,000km and still perfect.

The only test I have seen of the new technology batteries had the Antigravity a long way in front, but that was a few months back and things will probably be changing with the others pretty quickly - you cant keep selling batteries that explode under full load !

[_cy_]

Originally Posted by Beemerboff

These cheap $100- Valeo knock offs work just fine - I have 100,000 km on mine and is is still perfect.

The cheap Motobatt Oddessy copy works at least as well as the Oddessy too, 3 years / 100,000km and still perfect.

The only test I have seen of the new technology batteries had the Antigravity a long way in front, but that was a few months back and things will probably be changing with the others pretty quickly - you cant keep selling batteries that explode under full load !

really .. got any pictures of that exploded Antigravity battery?
any other details .. what size battery, etc?

Antigravity batteries with A123 26650 LiFePO4 cells are pretty rugged. it'd take some serious overcharging to pop A123 safety valves.

now with lithium cobalt li-ion cells like on Boeing 787 ... by overcharging little as 1/2v over fully charged state... it's quite possible to get those type cells to go into thermal runaway and explode. vs lithium iron phosphate li-ion cells are very difficult to achieve any type of thermal event by massively overcharging.

[Beemerboff]

The Antigravity was one that did not explode and came out in a long way in front on most tests.

The others that did explode only did so during extremely severe testing, but it could happen.

What I meant to say was that these things are still in the development stage, and are improving rapidly.
If one explodes under test the manufacturer is surely going to find out why and fix it PDQ before he is sued out of business, so a six month old review probably isn't worth much.

[RobboJ]

I am also thinking the same thing. If the ballistic Evo2 8 cell or 12 cell can fit in my original air box then that is where I will put it, possibly editing the inside of the casting and making or finding an air filter to keep the original air intakes but still house the small battery.

I want to keep my centre stand and have a thin, flat seat so no room for it there either.

Keen to find a good compromise between form and function on a bike I will ride everyday

[SERE Nate]

Will a ballistic 8 cell work or do you need the 12 cell? This is for a 77 r75/7 that will be running minimal guages/etc....

[Plaka]

Originally Posted by Sabre170

Yeah, I've considered hiding mine under the seat like that. My only hesitation, is that my cafe project had one requirement. The ability with not too much work to swap my solo seat back to the stock two person seat so my wife can ride with. If I hid the battery under the seat like that, I'd have to move the battery back to stock location when the 2 person seat is needed. Seeing that I will likely not ride with a passenger but 1 to 2 times a year, moving the battery wouldn't be too much of a pain if needed.

I'm curious....why did Cafebeemer make that battery pan with the "Z" bend? Is there a reason he didn't/couldn't use a flat piece of metal and mount the battery on that???

Tire clearance with the suspension fully compressed.

You can leave the battery location stock, use ordinary and far less costly batteries, and then wrap the thing instead of leaving it in a skeleton frame. You need cooling but a full box with interesting hole patterns could look good and it's strait up to fabricate. in fact, you could do some very interesting hole patterns.

[supershaft]

Originally Posted by Plaka

Tire clearance with the suspension fully compressed.

You can leave the battery location stock, use ordinary and far less costly batteries, and then wrap the thing instead of leaving it in a skeleton frame. You need cooling but a full box with interesting hole patterns could look good and it's strait up to fabricate. in fact, you could do some very interesting hole patterns.

Except it doesn't clear the tire. Too bad the bend in the Z is almost exactly where it will do the most harm. These threads would be a lot more interesting to me if more of the stuff had at least a chance of working!