Anybody go to a lithium battery?

[electriccruiser]

I’m wondering if anybody went to a lithium battery? Maybe it’s not worth it, but want to see others opinion.

[HMB Don]

I did, in late 2015 on my 2012 Voyager 1700. I bought a Shorai battery, I also bought the Shorai battery charger. This was not cheap, but worth it to me. Total miles of usage 80,000 miles

[Nails]

Don, Did you need to modify the stock XII charging system?

[Barry]

Back when I was working for the phone company, they thought it would be smart to replace batteries with lithiums. They quickly discovered that the old charging systems would charge them at too high a rate and cause fires or melt down the battery cases. That is no longer an issue. Some friends of mine have been putting them in their aircraft with no modifications to their charging systems. So far, so good for them.

So after I posted this, I went looking for more info and found a really good article here: https://www.motorcycle.com/products/lit ... -realities Since I don't ride as much as I used to, I run a battery tender all the time. It sounds like that won't work if I get a lithium. Unless I want to replace my charger? I think the VXII might feel better with the reduction of battery weight. Someone needs to do a long term test on the VXII with a lithium !!!

[Nails]

I'm planning to build a "tour bike" for dirt adventures like BDR or TAT. It'll be based on a d/s, where both space and weight are Big Deals. That'll surely involve a lithium battery. I understand that we need to be careful to pick a battery with robust internal controls over both charging and discharging. More research needed -- like whether my kick-start bike's charging system would work at all. I'm not yet convinced that I want lithium for my XII, although there certainly are advantages -- like maintaining 14V output until just before going entirely dead.

[HMB Don]

I have a 1700 Voyager. I'm sure that it'll work, but before installing any new battery I'd clean all cables for the charging system. That is very important as the 1200 Voyager is now an old motorcycle.

After reading the article my bike starts much better the price is VERY high $275.99 plus charger $89.99. Was it worth it yes.
Cold starts, the coldest I've started my Voyager was 27 a couple of years ago. I've also had a cold morning this year at the ride in. All I do is go out first thing and warm the battery.
That's for the Shorai battery.

[mayhem8]

While I won't likely go to a lithium battery, I do keep a lithium jumper pack in my bike's trunk at times, along with a phillips screw driver. It was a good thing I did because my original battery died on me near the end on this (my first) season.

There were some indications that the battery was on it's way out, which is why I carried the jumper pack. The bike would crank fine, but not really fire. When that happened, I'd hook up the batttery pack and it would fire right up. I also replaced what were probably the original plugs and went with iridium, so it fires up a little easier/faster with the new plugs.

I replaced the battery after it went with a similar one to what was in there. The jumper pack I have comes in a nice little case that holds the pack, plug-in 12v jumper lead to connect to the battery being jumped, and the charger. The pack also has a couple USB charging ports and a built-in light that can be set to on or flashing.

It's a 3000A (22K mAh) battery pack and I paid about $100 for it with the case/charger.

[SgtSlag]

As HMB Don alluded to, the Lithium batteries do not tolerate cold temperatures -- at least they didn't, a few years ago. Forewarned, is fore-armed. Cheers!

[GrandpaDenny]

I've been reading about Lithium batteries, and apparently to combat their intolerance to cold temperatures, all you need to do is put a load on the battery for a little while to warm it up before starting. This load could be the headlight, for example. Turn the ignition on, bump the starter switch to bring the headlight on, and wait (a few seconds I think? Not sure about how long you have to wait) and after the required waiting period the bike should start right up when you hit the starter again. Kind of like glow plugs on a diesel engine, eh?

[HMB Don]

So what i do, is turn on ign and fog lights for about a minute. Then turn off ign and I go back into the motel room and finish packing. The biggest problem with the battery is the price.

[Nails]

https://thenextweb.com/plugged/2020/12/ ... t-bonkers/

20K mAh is about twice what a bike needs.