| Author |
Message |
    
Jdugger
| | Posted on Friday, December 16, 2011 - 02:28 pm: | 
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> For street applications, lead-acid may not be glamorous,
For what it's worth, I didn't replace the OEM battery in my B bike. Like you said, it worked, and my perception of benefit of the lighter battery wasn't there for that bike.
My Honda 600 still has the OEM lead-acid battery in it, too. I see no need to replace it.
However, if I had an OEM battery fail, I'd not replace it with another lead-acid. The Li batteries are cheap enough now, I'd just as soon have the "no tender" convenience of them, and the weight savings is pretty awesome.
Pound-for-pound, it's one of the cheapest upgrades you can make, especially for the 1125r which specifies a very heavy OEM battery. |
Blake
| | Posted on Friday, December 16, 2011 - 04:41 pm: |
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Timebandit appears to be a fanboy of JD. How sweet. |
Nuts4mc
| | Posted on Friday, December 16, 2011 - 06:58 pm: |
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The owner of SHORAI spoke at our local club meeting a couple of months ago:
a) he is a military brat - growing up in California (learning how to ride bikes) and over in Japan (learning about the Japanese culture)
b) his interest in R/C models is what sparked the demand for a lightweight powerful battery
c) he has and is investing in permanent tooling to manufacture battery cases to fit most motorcycle applications
d) he is passionate about making Shorai a successful alternative to conventional batteries
e) the cell design is unique to Shorai giving the company and distinct advantage over the competition that may use "watch battery" designs to meet a motorcycle's need.
f) Higbee works for Shorai and the owner was gracious enough at our meeting not to "over sell" that fact.
g) The guy is a genuine motorcycle enthusiast - if you should have any problem with his product - I'm confident he will get it resolved and fixed to your satisfaction. |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Saturday, December 17, 2011 - 10:05 am: |
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I'd say its a great race application as is. Simple, light, affordable.
For a street application, I'd like to see one with a controller managing the cells, though perhaps the chemistry of the LiFePo (or whatever it is) is such that it still lasts 80% as long without a proper charger, and costs 30% as much, so it still makes sense.
I don't know a lot about the different lithium battery characteristics. The ones I do know about need a really sophisticated charger to keep from baking them, or, ah, an "uncontrolled thermal event". |
Smit3833
| | Posted on Sunday, December 18, 2011 - 07:01 pm: |
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You could probably hack a different BMS into the pack, but by the time you have balancing, high cell cut-off, low cell cut-off and temperature compensation you can go ahead and double the price of the battery in this application. My beat bet would be to use their charger once every 6 months to balance the cells and keep an eye on the total pack voltage. If it starts to go out of range with a charging system failire, turn your bike off asap. |
Blake
| | Posted on Monday, December 19, 2011 - 04:31 am: |
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The Ballistic models don't look to be the quality of some of the others, just purely based on appearance. The case plastic appears thin. Of course the race versions of some brands are just shrink wrapped, so maybe it's not important.
Interesting to learn the differences between prismatic and cylindrical LiFePO4 power cells. |
Yobub97
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2012 - 10:54 pm: |
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LiFePO4 Update:
LiFePO4 Batteries do not like cold! Here in Maryland with freezing temperatures and below, the current drops off dramatically. The batteries heat up internally trying to start, but it is very frustrating to try to start again and again. It took 5 tries to start my FJR1300 with regular oil at 28F degrees. The best solution to date - use synthetic oil (Rotella T6 is 5W-40W). It flows much easier when it is cold. The FJR starts up on first try now. The 1125R hasn't gotten the upgrade yet.
Other solutions I am working on include motorcycle heater grip panels to warm up the battery prior to starting, but don't let the battery get over 60C - they die! |
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