Sorry mate, I don't mind a moto batt and I FULLY agree with what you say, for a daily ride it's a tough choice, I have a LA on my daily ride, Id like a LiPO but cold weather start ups and all keep me on the fence with them, however a few of my customers who have SHIDO from me use them all year round, a few also with enduro bike no prob, have one on my Blade and my Ducati, no probs after two years.
I bought a 'motobatt' for my old R1, found it to be no better than my GS (Yuasa) battery which it replaced, I specifically noted that it's ability to turn the bike over seemed no different to the GS. Nowt really wrong with it, but didn't seem anything special in any way.
You're probably right, without the proper equipment to test its all subjective. the likely hood we are comparing a brand new battery to the old duff one!
My original battery is dropping to 9.6v when i thumb the starter, and 11.8v normal, optimate showing weak, is this on it's way, tempted by lithium but means I need a new optimate too so more expense!!
if its 11.8v resting even after a charge I'm surprised it's starting at all! Less than 12v means your battery is probably dying in any case resting voltages that low are damaging to the battery. A lead acid battery should be at least above 12.7v ish but preferably higher after a good charge. I'm assuming you have checked the charging system on the bike, if its not to spec this will reduce the life of the battery. Like I said I never optimated my Lithium in a year and a half of constant use, only when the the battery started to die. Lithiums have little or no self discharge and pretty much fully charged in a few minutes, so even after a short run they topped up! But as suggested ,if I did optimate it may have lasted longer. You just need to consider the ecomonics of it all ,against the advantages of lithium, lithium + an appropriate charger is probably equivalent to 4/5+ lead acid batteries!!!
I've used a motobatt for 2 years no problems and had to leave it 2 - 3 weeks at a time when away and starts up every time. Got a shorai lithium now so once I've used for a couple of months will give some feed back! Has more cold cranking amps than most of the other lithium batteries I looked at 210cca compared to 150 for most of the others
I've used a motobatt for 2 years no problems and had to leave it 2 - 3 weeks at a time when away and starts up every time. Got a shorai lithium now so once I've used for a couple of months will give some feed back! Has more cold cranking amps than most of the other lithium batteries I looked at 210cca compared to 150cca for most of the others
Actually spins over and starts well, running at just over 14v when running so charging ok, think I'll try a motobatt and see how it goes
I've had a Motobatt for a couple of years now and my only real criticism are the terminals on the battery. I remove the battery if I know I'm not using the bike for a while (no power in the garage), and I've managed to go through the threads on the brass terminals. No great drama, as I've managed to fit a couple of Helicoils in their place for longevity, but never happened with the original Yuasa.
