New battery

daler

daler

0
Joined
Feb 19, 2013
Messages
278
Location
Montana
Bike
2011 Black NT700
I'm planning to replace my original battery before taking a trip to Alaska next summer. Would appreciate any recommendations and advice you might want to give.

Thanks, Clint
 
My original is now over 8 years old and still good.
I do give it a little boost occasionally as the alarm that I have fitted and the heated grips do drain the battery very lightly over time if the bike is not used.

Macka
 
I replaced mine with a US made Motobatt battery which has been in use for over a year with no problems so far.

Seagrass
 
The advice from my friend who has been riding and wrenching on bikes his entire life is......buy a US or Japanese made battery. It has been his experience that the quality is more consistent with them.
 
A Yuasa OEM battery is going to run you between $175 and $200. I bought one as my first replacement. It lasted 3 years. My next replacement was a $49 Scorpion Chinese made battery. So far it's holding its charge and doing well. Whatever you buy make sure it's charged to at least 13.0 volts before you install it. Measure it with a volt meter 30 minutes after you remove it from the charger. It might take up to 24 hours. Don't trust the green light on your tender. Mine went into float at 12.6 volts which is not high enough.
 
I've had two new Motobatts fail me in the last year and have now changed brands. I have been using them in all of my eight bikes until now and rated them highly on both price and performance but I now believe (rightly or wrongly) that they don't like trickle chargers. This non-scientific knee jerk response is probably unwarranted but I decided to buy a $25 Powerline from ebay and so far it works very well indeed. If it turns out that the problem lies with my Ctek charger then I'll know soon enough. However, if money is no object, then I'd always recommend Yuasa for longevity.
 
Argyll said:
I've had two new Motobatts fail me in the last year and have now changed brands. I have been using them in all of my eight bikes until now and rated them highly on both price and performance but I now believe (rightly or wrongly) that they don't like trickle chargers. This non-scientific knee jerk response is probably unwarranted but I decided to buy a $25 Powerline from ebay and so far it works very well indeed. If it turns out that the problem lies with my Ctek charger then I'll know soon enough. However, if money is no object, then I'd always recommend Yuasa for longevity.
Click to expand...

Good point about the Motobatt. I had one in my other bike (Honda CX500 Turbo) and it failed without warning after about 18 months. I do put that bike on a battery tender about once a month.

I have been told that the regulator in the CX500 Turbo outputs more voltage than the AGM/Gel batteries like and this then "cooks" the battery.

The last battery I purchased for the CX500 Turbo was a cheap Chinese battery (still an AGM) and I will see how long it lasts compared to the Motobatt it replaced.

Seagrass
 
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FWIW, at O'Reilly Auto Parts we sell our own Super Start battery which is made for us by East Penn Manufacturing. East Penn is the 2nd largest battery manufacturer in the US. The P/N for the NT is ETZ14 and is made for us in Taiwan which has better merchandise than mainland China. I have had one in Traveller for two years with no problem.

Mike
 
I have had good luck with Odyssey batteries, bought from Amazon or ebay after first one bought several years ago 60 miles away.
They are not available locally for me and with Amazon Prime, free shipping, and 5% refund.
I've been getting 4-5 years before the voltage started dropping to where I didn't want to take a chance on failure away from home.
 
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