I found this gorgeous bikes and I see no battery. Do you know where it is? under the tank? inside the airbox?
On the ugly blue tank one, if you study how the pipe has been wrapped backwards (edges should face back, not forward) and follow the wrap to the brake pedal, then look deep right there you see a white thing in the background that wasn't original. it's the battery under the tranny. One the slightly uglier red tanked bike, the under tanny battery is bigger and more obvious. I think it's an interesting mod with some of these new compact batteries. Gets a chunk of weight nice and low. Ground cable needs to be handled better though. Lot of places to put it and the stock location is pretty weak a number of ways. With a stock battery and location, I don't do a stock ground termination.
Have you held one of those new batteries? I'd be real surprised if they weight more than 2 pounds. Amazing tech. But yeah ... hiding them like that really makes the bikes lines shine ... but having to lay on the ground every time you need to mess with the battery would make me rethink that improvement. IMO of course.
I love that blue/steel one - great job on the custom sub frame and how the seat looks made for it. Great rear fender too. (sans pipe wrap).
Wait till you get to replace the lead acid battery on a Suzuki Intruder....Needs a big battery to crank that V-Twin, it sits upright and the terminals are a hack to get to and easily shorted to the frame/exhaust if you're not careful.
Undo the negative lead FIRST! ------------ The only problems I see with the airhead battery under the transmission are; Heat Vibration isolation rock damage
Vibration and rocks are simple enough. I have my stock battery sitting in Sorbothane sheets. Picks off anything higher frequency. The battery box is rock protection---heavier or lighter depending on On or Off road use, and the intensity of off road work. I only see heat as an issue from the pipes. it takes a pretty simple heat shield to protect your leg from the pipes. Same game on the battery box. A ventilated double wall on the sides. You could also add heat shielding fabric, often used on cars and commonly available. There is enough circulation to dissipate any heat the battery makes. I use a quick-ish release ground strap at the battery. it's a thick copper bar, notch in one end for the bolt at the battery terminal, hole in the other end where a gang of ground wires are bolted up. The bolt through the battery terminal is an allen head with a stainless pin brazed out of it to the side. keeps the head from spinning. Then a standard nut outboard of the copper bar. The nut is released with a turn of the wrench and the bar lifts away. The wrench is an ancient one from a Fiat toolkit and is clipped to the battery box where it's handy. It's all quick and easy--no fiddling with two tools or getting all the wire terminals strung up on the bolt. The hot side uses the same one tool bolt but the terminals are all rings and are strung up on the bolt proper.
I have no experience with them but I could see: A royal PITA to deal with. Road gunk and grime and the ever leaking neutral switch/shifter shaft seal making it an even bigger PITA possibly even shorting the battery. A positive battery cable way longer than it needs to be. Low weight? Remember Honda's mass centralization? Bikes are not cars. A low CoG hurts handling as much as a high CoG.
It really is old news now that all the manufacturers are following. Read up on the history of Honda's mass centralization and how they discovered the errors in their thinking when they were thinking like you still are. You can trace it back to late 80's/early 90's 500cc GP racing. When they put the fuel tank on the bottom of their GP bikes and the pipes where the tank was. I don't think you are the only one round here still in the dark on this subject.
I don't always agree with SS, but when I do... Low mass helps a bike handle at low speed -- parking lot maneuvers. Higher/central mass makes a bike quick-handling at speed. Tip for thinking it through...a bike turns right by first having its tire contact patches move quickly out from under the bike, to the left. Tire patch moves left; the rest of the bike stays where it was; bike is now leaning and can turn right. If the bike is heavy down low, that leftward movement (and rightward lean) is sluggish and the right turn is slow to develop.
Wait, are you guys seriously discussing how a few pound modern gel battery affects a 30 year old Airhead's handling.....
Central is the operative word in mass centralization. Bikes, unlike cars and hacks, have a pitch axis. Bikes handle best when as much of its mass as possible is as close to the pitch axis as possible. The same is true front to rear as well. Centralizing mass front to rear as close as possible to the center of where ever gets the desired wheel weight bias handles best. Putting batteries under the tranny OR behind the seat makes the bike handle worse versus it's stock position. I have always suspected the best place for a battery is somewhere around where the diode board is stock. Someone agrees since after saying this before someone posted a pic of a race bike with the battery about right there. Yes, I am saying the placement of a wet cell battery does effect handling a great deal. BTDT. Of course, they are more than a few pounds but . . . . The age of the bike does not matter. Setup effects older bikes' handling as much if not more than new bikes' setup.
Okay, so why do you need a 25lb battery? And even if you purposely want one, what are the chances you're going to mount it anywhere but in the battery box? (My PC680 Odyssey weighs 15lbs and works fine)
And you reduce it by going to an AGM then lower it by what 10" (Z direction for axis people) ... it does make a small difference to the COG.. even smaller to "mass centralization" (never been a fan of that, more of a grand tourer than a racer, about say 5" on the X axis for axis people). Yes I do know what pitch, roll and yaw (or azimuth) axis are, however the displacement of the battery is not angular. And cars do have and use all those axis including pitch - watch one come to a sudden stop. THINK .. an airhead with knobbies ... high speed handling ? You don't tune your suspension for sealed race tracks when you go into the sandy desert? Nor do you put on suspension with 3" of travel for Baja ?
