| Author | Message | ||
     Yobub97 |
My battery just died, it was a cheap one ($50) that lasted only two years. I thought I would buy a good one this time and was surprised to see the prices near $100. You can now purchase LiFePO4 batteries for only a little bit more: Shoria: LFX14a1-bs12 $146 + free shipping http://www.ebay.com/itm/SHORAI-LITHIUM-BATTERY-LIG HT-WEIGHT-LFX14A1-BS12-/190596320405?pt=Motorcycle s_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item2c606d0c95 Ballistic EVO2: 8 Cell $152 + free shipping http://www.amazon.com/Ballistic-LiFePO4-Motorcycle -Battery-825grams/dp/B005LFWD6I/ref=pd_sim_sbs_aut o_3 Alien Motion: AM12 LiFe Starter Battery $119.99 + free AM8 $89.99 + free shipping http://www.alienmotion.com/html/purchase.html LiFePO4 batteries are compatible with the automotive charging systems (14.4V, 20A), weigh less (2 versus 10 pounds) with almost the same cranking potential, very fast recharge (15-20min) and almost no internal leakage (no trickle charging). Yes, I bought the cheap ones again ($89.99). We'll see how they perform. | ||
| Xnoahx |
Good stuff | ||
| Rodrob |
I encourage you to use Shorai. They help support our 1190RS racing effort. I use them in all my bikes. Tell them Crotchrocket.tv/Shawn Higbee sent you.   | ||
| Froggy |
Rob, did your bike not come with the EBR battery? | ||
| Timebandit |
Who cares what came with the bike? Shorai has earned space on the fairing, Nano-Teck has not. | ||
| Froggy |
I care, which is why I asked. Don't need to be a dick about it. If I plopped down $40k for a bike, I'd like it to not be missing things  (Message edited by froggy on December 13, 2011) | ||
| Rodrob |
You're not being a dick. It's a valid question. Yes it came with the ERB Nano Tech battery, It is a great battery as well. Were it not for the sponsorship, I would be using it. If I thought we were compromising performance with the Shorai, I would not be using it. But it's a great product and they stepped up. If price is no object, support EBR and go with the nano tech. If you have to go with a lower price point, go with Shorai. (Message edited by Rodrob on December 13, 2011) | ||
| Slaughter |
Us in the back of the pack ALSO race Shorai. My system is a total loss electrical and it is serving me well. | ||
| Blake |
Anti Gravity has some products that look interesting, different, but Shorai is the leader in the industry at present. Enjoyed talking with their man at the recent IMS in Dallas. He works with Shawn. The prices are really coming down. No cheaper way to lose 8 pounds I think. | ||
| Froggy |
Grenade accident | ||
| Smoke |
those grenades are expensive on the black market! lightweight battery for me too! (except in WERA SS) tim | ||
| Slaughter |
I only wish that I could lose 8 (or more) pounds as easily as I did by changing to the Shorai!} | ||
| Ros |
I'm seriously thinking about install the Ballistic 8 cell on my CR. It will be ok on a 2010CR? or is not a good solution on daily use bike, due to our "peculiar" charging system? thanks | ||
| Yobub97 |
Ros, Previous forum messages indicate the 12 cell would be better matched for a street Buell due to those fans running all the time. | ||
| Smit3833 |
I'm glad to see LiFePO4 making its way into our bikes. These batteries are as safe as it gets and very cost competitive. It looks like they put their battery management system (BMS) off board with the charger, I would highly recommend using the proper charger for it. I work with this kind of stuff everyday but on a larger scale for electric vehicles, if your battery pack becomes out of balance, individual cells can be over charged which will permanently damage them. Consider this upgrade as put on my wish list. | ||
| S21125r |
Quick question - not sure if it's been asked before... Do these new generation batteries require a different charge maintenance regiment? i.e. My Battery Tender does a 3 stage charging routine to maintain optimal battery health, but wasn't sure if the same Tender would be optimal for these LiFe batteries. Anything special to be aware of that you can/can not do with these vs. a typical lead acid battery? Thanks guys | ||
| Spyder12s |
I had put an 8cell ballistic in my cr .. it worked but I didnt feel it was quite big enough for the street .. once running it was fine but it did start hard and with the fans it was boarder line .. *cell would probably be fine for a track but I would recommend the 12cell..I cant give feed back on that as of yet due to winter showing up and the bikes are parked.. but after running with the 8cell I know the 12 is going to be perfect and yes I have has a stator change ..and a sub harness relay go bad as well on my 10'CR | ||
| Froggy |
I recommend a 12 cell, I had a 12 on my XB from Speedcell a few years back, it worked great regardless of temperatures and all my electric goodies. | ||
| Rodrob |
One of the great things about a Shorai battery, is that they can sit for a year without significant voltage loss, so no tender is required or recommended. I have used a plain old manual charger on mine during maintenance and tuning when the bike has been on and not running for long periods of time. As with all Li batteries, if they get fully discharged, they will be damaged. In very cold weather, turn the bike on without starting for a minute or so to warm the battery up. Then start. | ||
| Socalmoe |
They had a great sale at the IMS show in LB. | ||
| Slaughter |
http://www.shoraipower.com/t-faq.aspx Good FAQ section at Shorai | ||
| Jdugger |
Running a Shorai 12-cell here. My old "shrinkwrap 8-cell" finally gave up the ghost after nearly 3 seasons. It also went dead there for a while, I think that had a lot to do with it. So far, the 12-cell is great. It's a nice battery, way lighter, and at nearly OEM lead-acid price! | ||
| Smit3833 |
I'm not sure on the battery tenders charge profile, but I would not recommend leaving it on a tender anyway. These cells have a very low self discharge rate, around 3% per month. So unless your bike has a large parasitic load that is constantly draining the battery while stored. Regular chargers can be used to boost the battery if it is too low, but I would not charge over 14.0v (without a battery management system) on this chemistry, and that's assuming you have no dead cells and it is in balance. If the cells are over discharged or overcharged, they will most likely be permanently damaged. The damage can range from reduced capacity, no capacity (dead dead), to extreme voltage fluctuations (sags really hard under load and rises really fast under charging). Worst case scenario is on an over discharge where you can actually reverse the polarity of individual cells. BTW here is the explanation of the 8 cell vs. 12 cell battery packs. Each LiFePO4 cell looks like a single size c battery, it has a nominal voltage around 3.2v and a capacity of 3Ah (I'm assuming the capacity number). What the 3Ah or AMP Hour rating means is that you could discharge this cell, at a rate of 3 amps for one hour before it would run out of energy. The Ah rating is also important for defining its maximum output current. I don't know what it is on this cell size but we can assume its 20C or 20x the capacitance (3Ah). So Maximum discharge current is 20x3=60A per cell. When you take four of these cells, and hook them up in series (positive to negative) the voltage adds. So its 3.2+3.2+3.2+3.2 = 12.8v. However the capacity stays the same for the entire string so your now at 12.8v and 3Ah. The max discharge current is still 60A. If you take these cells and wire four in parallel (all positives and negatives attached) the voltage stays the same and the capacity increases. 3+3+3+3 = 12Ah at 3.2v. With this setup it would have a maximum discharge current of 240A. So the 8 cell LiFePO4 pack would have the same voltage as the 12 cell (12.8v) but it would only have 6Ah instead of 9Ah like the 12 cell pack. Now this is where it gets important, if any one of those cells goes bad, the rest of the cells in its parallel string need to compensate (work harder) to keep up with the rest of the battery pack. For our bikes this is not a major issue, but still an issue. In some extreme electric vehicles, where they are pushing the limits of the cell chemistry and have much larger arrays of cells. If one cell goes bad (lots of things can cause this), it causes a chain reaction that will generally blow out the rest of the parallel string. Depending on the chemistry, this means either the cells cuts come out, it melts down, or starts a nice little bon fire. I'm not trying to alarm anyone, just educate a little bit on battery packs and what the difference between 8 and 12 cell setups are and how they perform. These batteries are perfectly safe for our motorcycle application. Sorry for the long winded post, I rarely get a group of people who are interested in new battery tech... | ||
| Reepicheep |
That's been my concern from the beginning Smit. I don't understand how anyone can put these batteries into an automotive system without smart charging hardware and expect them to last long. For racing? Sure, you aren't going to charge / discharge them often, and weight rules all. For a street bike though, the ones without an integrated charger seem dubious to me. | ||
| Froggy |
I agree, which is why I lean to the EBR battery despite its higher cost. | ||
| Jdugger |
> which is why I lean to the EBR battery despite its higher cost. Completely logical. But, with a cost almost 2.5x, I started asking myself "how long will I have this bike..." A battery that will last 2-3 seasons is $150. In three years, will it still be $150? It's reasonable to think I could spend $150 now, and simply replace the battery as it failed and still make it 6-9 years before having met the higher cost of the better battery. That's essentially the gamble I took. | ||
| Froggy |
My $270 Speedcell didn't even make it two years, but it did have a full discharge and it was never the same after that. I can justify the extra hundred bucks for a superior battery that is good enough to come stock on a bike with the load balancing circuity. | ||
| Timebandit |
> But, with a cost almost 2.5x, I started asking myself "how long will I have this bike..." You're someone who cares about function. You impress me as someone who thinks the problem through, buys what makes a practical real world improvement, and doesn't buy for the bling / fanboy factor. For a street application where weight is not a primary concern, and performance isn't dramatically improved, I find it hard to justify the added up-front cost. > That's essentially the gamble I took. Since everyone who owns an 1125 is gambling in one way or another, here's another thing to consider: If you've got a model of bike that's known to have charging system problems, the last thing that you'd want to happen is to have a charging system malfunction and kill an expensive battery. When that happens, you'll be kicking yourself for buying a battery that is easily damaged by undercharging, and costs a lot more to replace than the standard lead-acid battery. For street applications, lead-acid may not be glamorous, but it gets the job done at a reasonable price. | ||
| Jdugger |
I'm almost sure a full discharge is what knocked out my first one, too. After that crash in Feb the bike remained a heap until I was healed enough to take it apart. By then, something was slow leaking current, and the battery was toast. I recharged it, and it worked for a while, but ultimately starting having a fair bit of trouble holding enough charge for a start. BTW, the Shorai batteries do have a special charging hookup. I've not had mine long enough to know if it will last a long time, but the price is right. The Li batteries have really come down in price. | ||
| Timebandit |
Aargh. I should have said AGM battery. |
