Yet Again, Battery Questions....

DucatiBart851

I did perform a search looking for answer to my question, Most of the posts are pretty old and battery tech has changed since some of those posts.

Anyways I’ve got ’91 851 I obtained over the summer of ’24. The lead acid battery was replaced with another lead acid battery in Nov ’23,

It sits on a Battery Tender, battery tender when not in use. Lights on it were all green. Unplugged went to start it and nothing. Since I heard all the clicking and normal start up noises, I figured the battery. Checked it on my other battery charger and it showed only 60% charged.

So I’m wondering which Battery Tender you use if you still have the lead acid battery?

And with the advent of Life/Lipo batteries, can I just drop one in with no changes to the system? And is so which brand and type did you switch to?

TIA

mike

I can’t claim to be an expert on such things, however - I ran one of these on my 916 last year. It’s tiny and super-lightweight, and for the 916 it works just fine, despite the specs being underpowered on paper.

However - I also tried that same LiFePO4 battery on the 888SP5, and found that it just didn’t have enough grunt to consistently start the engine of that bike, and reverted that back to AGM Lead acid battery for the moment.

The precautions I took was to replace the RR to a more modern shindengen unit, connecting it with a Triumph wiring loom connector, and to put a digital volt-meter on it also so that I could keep an eye on charging voltage. Having a reliable,modern RR is an important factor to avoid overcharging the battery if the RR fails - most modern Life/lipo batteries will have built-in protection, I believe, but it just makes sense to take the precaution.

For a charger, the LiFePO4 battery keeps it’s charge really well, but I have a pair of wall-mounted NOCO chargers, with a long cable to allow me to connect to any bike in the garage/workshop.

guillaume69

I use a Shido LB16AL-A2 on my 851. On top of being super light, it’s has 300 CCA which combined with bigger starter cables, makes firing the cold D4 almost instantaneous. It does theoretically require a specific Lithium battery trickle charger and of course, MOSFET r/r is a huge safety guarantee against over charging, with lithium batteries are very sensitive to.

With these precautions, we switched to Lithium batteries on all 4 bikes and never looked back.

outtacontrolla

Interestingly, on some specials we build , we fit a small lead acid battery and a lithium together giving us best of both worlds as we had trouble with lithium batteries on their own .

Our aim of course was to fit batteries into smaller hidden spaces on open bodied bikes !

DucatiBart851

Thanks for the replies Gents!

I bought a different charger and it seems to be keeping the battery “full”. Been checking with a multi-meter.

Sounds like I can go with Lithium with maybe an RR change. Or a way to to ensure the battery isn’t overcharged.

Or can go AGM as a direct replacement.

mike

DucatiBart851

At some point over the winter, I’ll probably go down the Shido route that G suggested. It’s incredible how much those older batteries weigh, and whilst I’m not particularly chasing weight savings for performance reasons, it’s just got to be worth dropping a few kilos.

guillaume69

The first time I got one of those Lithium batteries in my hands, I actually thought it was a scam. Like an empty plastic box or something… Then you hook it onto your bike and the cold cranking amps are incredible.

Absolutely amazing technology, if/when used safely. Only time it made me sweat was cold morning start after a night out. It does need to be seriously shaken up to wake up.