Dead battery/tenders

bcar00 · Saturday at 4:59 PM

Einar said:
I've used them before (and the Tiger 1200s come with one) and never had a problem. Can't say the same for the lead-acids, which in my experience always suddenly fail with no warning. The quality of the battery matters greatly--it needs a quality BMS otherwise it'll be prone to sudden and/or early failure. It should perform undercharge protection, overcharge prot., overheat prot., and cell balancing.

If and when the new battery in my Rocket fails, I'm looking at probably replacing it with one of the following:
- Antigravity AG-ATX12-RS RE-START, 6.1 Ah / 360 CCA
- Shorai LFM21A6-BS12, 7 Ah / 315 CCA

At 6-7 Ah, they're roughly equivalent to about a 16 Ah lead-acid when it comes to usable capacity. The lead-acid still contains more energy but using more than half of it will damage it. The main thing is to use a charger designed for Lithium batteries if you keep your bike(s) hooked up to one. (I use the Harley-Davidson four-bike charger, which has individual options for Lead-Acid, AGM, and Lithium for each of its four outputs).

Edit: Looks like there's an Antigravity ATX12-HD RE-START that also fits with 480 CCA and 8 Ah. Hmmm...

I'd like to see if anyone has tried an ATX12-HD. Antigravity doesn't technically make a replacement for this bike, as the ATX12-HD is supposedly only recommended for bikes up to 1500cc. and the ATX20 doesn't fit the Rockets odd sized battery box. Notice it's CA, not CCA in the specs for their batteries. That's 270 CCA (Stock battery) vs. 480 CA (Lithium). Cold Cranking Amps will be significantly lower than Cranking Amps.

...as an aside, Antigravity is the only Lithium battery I'll use. I've used them on at lease half a dozen bikes without issues. The one time I went with another brand, I had the problems jackrotten referenced.

Jagster · Sunday at 3:36 AM

I notice on the Antigravity website, there is a section on 'lithium friendly' voltage regulators/rectifiers relating to bikes.
Just wondering if that's the key to getting a problem free swap over to lithium from stock battery ??

Gimlet · Sunday at 4:47 AM

Jagster said:
I notice on the Antigravity website, there is a section on 'lithium friendly' voltage regulators/rectifiers relating to bikes.
Just wondering if that's the key to getting a problem free swap over to lithium from stock battery ??

It is. I'm going to have to go lithium on my Ducati. I've had tuning work done and the stock battery doesn't have the cranking power and I'm killing starter sprags. A larger lead acid cannot be accommodated in the battery tray which is located in a very tight space in the tailpiece. So I'm going lithium, but lithium iron phosphate, not lithium ion because it's more stable. There is a replacement available that matches exactly the external dimensions of the stock lead acid but has (claimed) double the cranking power.
On their new model big bikes Ducati have gone over to lithium as stock (they use Skyrich batteries). On older ducs to go lithium you have to replace the reg/rec with a lithium-compatible mosfet unit or, at best the battery will not charge correctly. At worst it will overload. Fires associated with luthium are down to incompatible charging. You also need a lithium-specific tender as well.
Several after-market Mosfet units are available. I imagine this will be the same for all makes of bike that were designed for lead acid batteries.

Dead battery/tenders

bcar00

.020 Over

Jagster

Torque junkie

Gimlet

Supercharged

Similar threads

Dead battery/tenders

bcar00

.020 Over

Jagster

Torque junkie

Gimlet

Supercharged

Similar threads

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency