Lithium Battery

[Air Force]

Is anybody using a Shorai Lithium Battery and if so what are your thoughts?

[HMB Don]

Looks like a good way to go, if you don't mind the buy in price.

At the Quail Lodge Motorcycle Gathering, last month the company was there displaying there battery's. They had a battery's that would fit a Gold Wing and one for both the 1200 or 1700 Voyagers. So very light, but the price $300 to $400 hundred, they did give me a 20% off coupon!

I'm hoping to be able to afford one when my 1700 needs a new battery.

[SgtSlag]

I've heard/read that Lithium takes a dive in cold temperatures.

Before buying, I would suggest thorough research of the products, in general. An AGM will cost twice as much as a flooded battery, but it will last 6+ years (I can only get my flooded/conventional batteries to survive for two years, even with a Battery Tender Jr. connected after every ride -- YMMV). The Lithium batteries cost around 6+ times what a conventional battery is; will a Lithium battery last 6+ times as long, or are people paying for the novelty(?) of a much lighter weight battery?

Research, and make an educated decision... Or not. It's your money. Cheers!

[HMB Don]

Today I changed out the old battery on my son Voyager 1200, which I gave him in 2012.

In stalled the battery 03 11 09 miles on the odo 107,000. It was just a bit over five years old, but here in Northern CA we ride all year round and it never gets very cold 32 for one or two days and only for a few hours.

The odo today was 202.000, I changed the Alt at 158,000 and it was still in good working order. What I do and tell everyone is clean the grounds on your car and motorcycle. So I think it's worked with this last battery. Why I changed the battery, when I picked it up to redo the front forks. I hit the starter and the starter felt off, not bad, not dragging, it was just not right. Today after installing the new battery when I started the Voyager 1200, It fired with out the help of the choke and the engine was much smoother when cold. It sill has the OE fuel pump. I think this Voyager was built on a Wednesday.

What I was told that when storing those new Lithium battery's that you can disconnect them from the MC and they'll stay fully charged for 2 or more years. Some of these Lithium battery's have a switch on the battery to turning off the battery when you store your MC. About the cold and it weakening the battery I didn't ask that question.

I agree that's a lot of money, but I'd like to try one on my 1700 maybe bring the weight down to 890 lbs.

[Mr Jensee]

I am not convinced that lithium-ion batteries are all that. There are numerous shortcomings inherently built into them. If you have a laptop you know what I mean. If the lithium-ion batteries are left to discharge below 10% they are toast. Just ask some owners of Fisker electric cars that were not put on chargers after being run down. The cars became bricks in the garages. Batteries were required to be replaced by the owners at a cost of $25,000 in some instances because Fisker didn't warrant the batteries. In the past certain brands of Lithium-ion batteries in laptops were recalled due to them catching fire. Lithium is expensive to mine and hard to get to. The cost of production is high and NOT likely to get cheaper in the near future. I prefer to stick to AGM batteries for now, which seem to be the logical cost conscious choice for the majority of consumers.

[voyager55]

You can buy a Sealed Yuasa battery for $101 with free shipping. Hard to beat that. They last a long time to

[JHD]

Picked up (hold in hand) a Shorai Lithium Battery at the IMS a couple years back. I couldn't believe how light it was. To expensive for my taste. Can't see spending big bucks on something like that when I can buy 3-4 agm's for the same price.