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Anybody running a lithium battery, AntiGravity?


VFR80025th

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Just thinking upon replacement time going with a lithium battery and save some weight.

Anybody out there gone with lithium and what has your experience been. Yey or nay?

Is it worth switching over to at least save 4pds give or take.

 

Thxs in advance.

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Li batteries are old tech now. I've had them in the track bikes for many years without issue, and they start and stop a lot and get a chance to get hot too. I don't think that I've had to replace a single one on any of the bikes! 

 

I still have some old AGMs in the VFRs and CB-1, but only until they die. 

 

Mine are Battery Tender brand. And now you have me curious. Processing...found data. 

 

Backup track bike came with a used one in it back in 2016. 

Primary track bike came with a used one when I bought it in 2019.

DS Rally bike came with a used on 2017. 

KLX got one in 2021. 

 

The three AGMs are still going strong too. I love MotoBatt! (4 years and 3 years and working great!)

 

You get weight savings, but not needing to charge them is a huge benefit, IMHO. 

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I just bought a Shorai for the '99. Weight savings are closer to 7-8lbs I'd say.

 

Edit: weighed the Yuasa AGM that came out at 9.2 lbs, the Shorai Li battery that went in was 2.2 lbs. 

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I have Li batteries in all my bikes that use batteries, street and dirt.  All are at least 3 years old and not a single issue so far.  For me, lead based batteries are a thing of the past.

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Been running them around 12ish years...first one went 7 years, current one on 5, no signs of giving up yet....I  like them and will continue to use them..

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I run Battery Tender lithium on 3 of my bike.  No problems ever except the VFR800 clock runs it down a bit.  I just disconnect the negative battery cable.  I do not use a trickle charge.  I just went out to start my RC51 and it started it struggled for a moment due to the long Chicago winter.  What I like about it it fits in anything and it has 4 post.  Some of my friends do not like it because it is not a direct fit.  You have to use some foam spacers.

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Li is excellent!

They are pricy, but the benefit is an instant performance impact.

I did a back-to back swap AGM vs Li at my buddies moto-shop right before purchasing my own.

Cornering was instantly easier and acceleration & stoppage was more responsive from the weight reduction.

Think of it as a roughly 1.5% mass reduction in the bike overall, and that weight is up high!

... And if you have multiple bikes, you can swap the battery between them depending on how you're feeling that day 😁

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I’ve had an SSB Powersport Lithium in my G8 for nearly 4 years and it’s still going strong. It is considerably lighter than the original lead acid but, in all honesty, I haven’t really noticed any difference to the handling. It’s a bit like the titanium bling that I’ve added, it just makes me feel like my bike is different to the rest.

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Got an Antigravity for my track/play bike (still street legal) back in 2019. Thought they sent me an empty box when it came. It sat on the bench for nearly a year while I was doing maint/mods. Never charged it, and it always showed 13+ volts. The bike has the Roadstercycle SH847+ wiring kit+voltage monitor, and a small fan on the R/R. I ride it to work probably every couple of weeks, and it's been trouble free.

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Forgot to add part of the mods was making a heat shield to keep the radiant heat from the rear pipes off the shock, installing heat shielding on the bottom of the battery box, and Swiss-cheesing the lid to let heat escape. Lithium batteries do not like heat. We cooked one in our race car at Willow Springs when the ambient temp was 120+. it was swollen, and outgassing so much we dropped it into a cooler full of water.

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Do these batteries need to be on trickle chargers in the winter?  The heat thing scares me a bit, with summers getting so much hotter here in TN.

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For my current Yuasa AGM I remove the battery during the winter and plug it in to a trickle charger.

 

So for Lithium batteries are you saying no trickle charge over winter which is almost 5-6 months in Canada.

They will not lose a charge after that much time?

 

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29 minutes ago, bmart said:

Correct. They hold a charge Waaaay longer. 

Impressive. I also like the 7pd weight saving.

Thanks Bmart.

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I use lithium (LiFePO4) batteries on all my bikes for past 10-yrs. On my race-bike, I use tiny 4-cell battery that weighs less than 1/2-kg (saved 4-kg!). Bike sits for 6-months over winter in cold shed outside that drops well below 0C in winter. Spring time comes around, roll bike out, put in fresh petrol, prime carbs, START-button - VRROOMM!!!!

With multiple bikes, I no longer have to run around garage stringing chargers to bikes that have been sitting. Or remove batteries for charging on bench.

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I got an EarthX for half price, it weighs 1 kg and I've never charged it. I keep it inside in winter and didn't even run the bike this year. After 16 months it still meters 13 volts.

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AGM batteries eventually die--even if kept on expensive smart chargers.  I've proved this by keeping my bikes' AGM batteries on Optimate chargers for years--without any complications resulting from riding any of them!  So, I'm a bit sceptical about MotoBatt's "hybrid" battery, assuming it combines a small AGM with a small Lithium.  I would expect that means that the AGM part of it is eventually going to die, taking the Lithium part with it...  Still, Harley riders do need something to spend their money on!

 

Battery Dimensions

RS250:                        YTZ-7S:     114mm x 70mm x 105mm   (6AH, 130 CCA)
MC22/29:                   YTX7L-BS: 114mm x 70mm x 130mm   (6AH, 100 CCA)
NC30/35/SXV550:      YTX7A-BS: 151mm x 87mm x 95mm    (6AH, 105 CCA)
RC36/46:                    YTX12-BS: 151mm x 87mm x 130mm   (10Ah, 180 CCA)
ST1300:                      YTZ14S:     151mm x 87mm x 110mm  (11Ah, 230 CCA)

 

Lithium-Ion

2017 CBR1000RR Lithium 31500-MKF-L61
Eliiy Power HY93 (4.5Ah, 85 CCA)
112mm x 70mm x 93mm

 

2018 CRF1000L Africa Twin 
Eliiy Power HY110 (6.0Ah, 120 CCA)
112mm x 70mm x 110mm

 

BikeMaster DLFP-12-BS (6Ah, 180 CCA)
148mm x 87mm x 94mm

 

Shorai LFX14L2-BS12 (14AhPbEq, 210 CCA) £169
113mm x 58mm x 89mm

 

Antigravity 1201 (12AhPbEq, 360 CCA) £242
114mm x 83mm x 108mm

 

Aliant YLP14 (14AhPbEq, 245 CCA) £117
114mm x 69mm x 90mm

 

So I ended up with a single Aliant YLP 14Ah Lithium battery to replace all my bikes' different-sized batteries.  (Just checked the voltage: 13.3v, after sitting in an unheated garage for almost a year without charging.)  I'm using Anderson 50A connectors to make swapping the battery between bikes easy.  After all, I can only ride one bike at a time...

 

Ciao,

 

JZH

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Correctamundo! No idea on the new MotoBatt. I do know they have the best AGMs I've ever used. 

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I'm running a Battery Tender lithium battery in my 5th gen. It is over 4yrs old and going strong. I do keep it plugged in to a tender during our cold New England winters. Nice weight savings, not much more expensive than AGM. I will eventually replace the batteries in my other bikes as well once their AGM batteries die out. 

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Do these lithium batteries come with hard foam spacers or something similar.

I would assume that most of these lithium batteries are smaller than equivalent AGM.

Thxs

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10 hours ago, VFR80025th said:

Do these lithium batteries come with hard foam spacers or something similar.

I would assume that most of these lithium batteries are smaller than equivalent AGM.

Thxs

Mine did

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