Shorai battery for KTM990/LC8

Chuck I don't think the small tenders push enough amps to warm it up, especially since the Shorai holds it's voltage very well and wouldn't likely take much if you were topping it off. It's not like a lead/acid battery. My Aprilia sat for 2 weeks after installing and testing the battery. It hadn't even lost a tenth of a volt in that time, still upper 13's.

IMHO I think what warms up the batteries is a good amps pull on 'em, either headlights for a few minutes, or a quick start attempt for a few seconds.

Mark, mine hasn't been on the charger since install and I've been running a Gerbing heated jacket liner on full on the rides, no mercy. Still fires the bike right off. Above freezing it's usually first cranks and it goes, doesn't need the internal warmup. Good thing too, because with no kicker, and standard auto-clutch, there's no push starting it either. Your GG must be a tough one to get going.

Is there any chance the GG is drawing the battery down when parked?

these are notorious for killing even the best battery.. I still have a kick starter though, yeah, id say your battery better start, :)

i checked that when i first got the bike.. it's not that...a little warmer outside or if i try to start it while it's inside my heated shop, it turns right over.

But the other day it was in the 20's and i pulled it on a trailer for about 15 mins to get to our riding spot. Must've just been too cold for her..

Just installed the Shorai that was shipped from Adventure Machines. After checking its voltage (13.3 VDC as delivered), I padded the OE battery tray to situate the battery terminals as near to where the OE battery terminals were, and bolted it in. The '07 990A came to life noticeably quicker upon startup. I'm going to let it cold soak overnight, and check it again in the AM.

That is good news. Now I don't have to by a second charger,

My new LFX18ah arrived from Advmachines a couple of days ago. It was already charged to 13.3 volts (90%), so I installed it, sprayed some CorrosionX on the terminals, and took it for a 30 minute ride so I could watch my dash mounted voltmeter to see how the KTM's charging system reacts to this new technology. BTW, the Shorai spun my '03 over noticably faster than the OEM 9 year old Yuasa. Voltage drop during start was also better (11.4v vs 9.6v). During the first 15 minutes, the DVM showed 13.7 - 13.9 volts while running 4k rpm. After 20 min it was up to 14.2 - 14.4 volts. After I stopped, the DVM read 14.2v which gradually decreased to 13.4 over the next 24 hrs.

I've been checking it for 3 days now without starting the bike to see how the Shorai holds its charge over time. It was 13.34 volts this AM. I checked before installing the new battery and parasitic drain for this bike was 0.0 ma.

A couple of other observations:

-The terminals on the Shorai are quite a bit less robust than the OEM, so the hamfisted out there should be careful. 30 inch/ounces of torque is spec'd. That aint much:eek1

- The nuts on the terminals are a PITA. They keep slipping out of place, and things get very fiddly quick. The quick fix is to stuff a piece of the foam from the kit behind the nuts to hold them in place.

- A "normal" lead-acid automatic trickle charger won't bring the Shorai up to full charge as they float around 13.3 volts which as stated above is 90% for the LFX. Need to get the Shorai charger if storing long term and can't run the bike long enough to charge it.

- The mfr recommends charging these batteries when they get to 50% which is 13.11v. Gonna be hard for most m/c owners to check these minute voltage changes. No problem if you have a DVM installed on the bike.

- Moving it to the tool box under the seat (my first thought) won't work too well on the Adventure, as it gets too hot under there for the LFX.

Now all that's left is to just go ride and see if it performs as well as my OEM did.

....what shoulda taken 15 minutes turned out to be an hour+ installing the Shorai due to those damned crappy little connectors. If you have just the + and - cables I'm sure it would be a cinch, but with several accessories going to the battery it's a real bear to get the screws lined up.

a little piece of foam under the nut to hold it up in place works well, otherwise it can be a major PITA to get all the terminals stacked, bolt through everything and then started correctly into the nut.. that is at the bottom of the battery terminal.

That's what I finally figured out but used longer screws.
I think the terminals are so wimpy cuz there's possibly regular lithium batterys in a square box as a container. The easiest way to connect the Li's to the outer case was to use those bendy metal treminals. What a gyp!

I've got a Shorai and find the terminals will be, not may be, the first point of failure. I just recieved a new Ballistic Battery and it seems to be the best one available with near or equal Shorai prices. Hard case, flush terminals locked in the case and a great warranty. No complaints, quality looks first rate.

Deal breaker.

I've got too much cabbage wrapped up in Battery Tenders.

Me too, but I still have plenty of lead acid batteries in my fleet. Not likely to run out soon either.

As do I, but adding the price of another charger to the price of a Shorai, and yet another cord snaking around my garage doesn't hold very much appeal.

I guess I'll be staying exclusively in the lead acid camp-- at least with respect to the Shorai battery.

Thanks for mentioning that, though; the impression I had gotten earlier in the thread was that a Battery Tender would work with a Shorai.

A 1.5 - 3 amp Trickle charger is useless with any discharged battery in my book.
From what I hear, the Shorai is hot enough out of the box to crank your bike.

Every biker should own a Variable 2/12 & Higher Amp Batt Charger.
I'll use my 2amp for my Shorai before it swap it for the HEAVY Stocker.

Yeah, thanks.

I have all the battery chargers I need, including a 40/60 amp Forney roll-around, and I'm pretty certain I would have no perception of the difference in weight between these two batteries given where they are located on the bike.

Here's an interesting (to me anyway) post by David Radford, pres of Shorai, USA, over on Basem's blog on about.com motorcycles. It was in answer to some questions by posters.

1) Possible lamp life reduction for lights on your bike

Not a problem. Our standing voltage on initial key ON (before cranking) will be about a volt higher than lead-acid, but that isn’t enough to significantly reduce bulb life, nor is it as high as the voltage seen while the vehicle is running. After the vehicle is running, the voltage to the bulb will be the same with lead-acid or our LFX, as it is the charge output voltage seen by the bulb (13.6V~14.6V), which is above resting voltage for both battery types.
2) Possible problems with charging circuitry
3) Will the charging profile designed for a lead acid battery work properly for a Lithium Ion battery?

Our LFX have identical terminal charge voltage – 14.2V~14.6V (14.4V nominal) as lead-acid, and the same charge curve (CC-CV). No problem, at all. However, the ideal charger will be our own BMS01, which will be out by early March 2011. That has a pigtail from the 5-pin port, which can be tied off in an accessible location. The 5-pin port allows us to diagnose and charge each cell individually, for maximum accuracy and cell balance.

4) How does this battery compare to a AGM battery

It really doesn’t. It solves the sulfation problems, weighs a LOT less, and supplies more constant voltage to the vehicle systems, at the level modern systems require (recently many EFI problems are associated with too-low voltage during cranking with laed batteries). The two technologies have virtually nothing in common, except the charge requirements.

David Radford
President, Shorai Inc.
845 Stewart Dr., Suite C
Sunnyvale, CA 94085

You should never hit a motorcycle battery with more than 2 amps... it will warp the plates almost instantly.


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The SE Battery is under the seat, unlike the ADVenture.

Installed the Shorai in my 950 SE Today
Had to drill out the Terminals to accept my 6mm bolts.
I just about destroyed the positive terminal, because my new drill bit HUNG & Twisted the terminal :ddog
But I straitened it out ok
The Foam made it fit PURFECT

I charged it with my Variable Charger on 2amp setting