Cold Starting

[.408cheytac]

I am currently at work and the bike has been giving me a bit of trouble in the past few days. I ride it every day so the battery doesn't have a lot of time to sit idle, however when I went to move it around to the back of the store a few hours ago there was not enough juice to start it in this cold. It is 15° F... recommendations on cold start batteries or is there something I should check before I buy. It is a 91 600 gsxf and the battery is about 4-5 years old NOT gel.

Thanks!

[steves]

at 4-5 years old it's probably just at the end of it's useful life. The recent cold snap makes just about everything hard to start. I'm running a Shorai LiOn heavy duty battey in my sprint right now.

[KatanaGSX92]

I'm using a Ballistic Li Iron Phosphate battery that has 440 CCA. Recently in SoCal we've had mornings below freezing. My Jeep is hard to start but my Hayabusa springs to life with the Li Iron battery.

4-5 years on a motorcycle battery is pretty good. I agree with Steves, it's probably time to look at getting a new battery. Check out Shorai or Ballistic Products for the newer batteries. The cost more but work much better, are smaller and lighter than your standard lead acid/AGM batteries.

[.408cheytac]

My mechanic mentioned getting a firepower battery from Marshall in my size for the mid $40's or $50's. Also, do most people use battery tenders in cold weather? I will be honest I can't spend more than $90 on a battery. I may just plug it in overnight or leave it at work in the mean time.

[KatanaGSX92]

A lot of people use a battery tender regardless of the temperature if the bike will sit for any length of time. The nice thing about the Ballistic battery (and probably the Shorai as well), is that you don't need a battery tender. My bike sat for a month because of cold, rainy weather on the weekends. Fired it up last Sunday, it was still cold... but it fired right up. I didn't have it on a battery tender. Yes these batteries are much more expensive but I think they are worth it.

[.408cheytac]

Damn its cold 5 degrees leaving from work now. I had a friend drop off my charger wish me luck! hahahaha

[numus]

Damn.. it was 35 deg this morning and I decided to take the jetta... I want to ride tomorrow but I have to transport a laptop and an impact driver and don't want to put both of those in the same backpack (large magnet in the impact driver may not be safe for the laptop)...

As for relevant information.... You wont need a tender for a Lithium Ion Polymer battery because they don't really suffer the self discharge like SLA/GEL...

At this point in your battery's life, leaving it on a charger isn't going to do much... especially if you are low on electrolytes, the charger is just going to sulfinate the cells faster...

The cells are probably already sulfinated so adding more electrolyte isn't going to do much for capacity...


I paid 40 bucks for a new AGM battery at my local battery source... Works great...

BTW it isn't recommended to use a battery tender or any other maintainer with Lithium Ion batteries that is ment for regular batteries... Lithium Ion requires a different voltage stepping during the charge cycle and usually these chargers/maintainers cant do them (unless it specifically says it is ment for lithium ion.. and even then you will have a selector switch for them)... Just FYI for everyone out there... Even Shorai advises to not use them unless you seriously need to... and don't leave them plugged in to use as a "float" or maintainer...

Some good information here http://www.batterystuff.com/kb/frequ...i-battery.html

Edit: Battery I bought was AGM not SLA...

[scottynoface]

I got 9 years out of my original factory AGM battery, bike does live in a heated garage though...I only tendered during the winter.

As for price on batteries, you definitely get what you pay for. At least spring for an AGM if you cant afford the LiFe. I wanted the Shorai in the worst way but cant justify that kind of $ on a bike that I don't ride.

[numus]

I got 9 years out of my original factory AGM battery, bike does live in a heated garage though...I only tendered during the winter.

As for price on batteries, you definitely get what you pay for. At least spring for an AGM if you cant afford the LiFe. I wanted the Shorai in the worst way but cant justify that kind of $ on a bike that I don't ride.

If it is a 91 (and he also states not gel so I am guessing not AGM either) I bet it is either SLA or Flooded... 5 years is about what you can expect, especially if it is flooded and he never added electrolytes the entire time

[scottynoface]

(and he also states not gel so I am guessing not AGM either)

Missed that part

[.408cheytac]

If it is a 91 (and he also states not gel so I am guessing not AGM either) I bet it is either SLA or Flooded... 5 years is about what you can expect, especially if it is flooded and he never added electrolytes the entire time

I checked the fluid level this fall and during the summer as well I did need to ad some distilled water to the compartments but it is not as though it was leaking or super low.

Another question....

Even when I had my charger on high amp jump-start mode it took a very long time to crank over. I had to hold the start button down continuelsy ever after it turned over. Then once it got going it would rev crazy high for a moment then return and stall. In the warm months I have to run with the choke open for a good 30 sec to a min. This time I could not get it to idle for several minutes. The bike does not like to be between 1000-2500 rpm it is either revving high or stalling low no middle ground. Is this something other than just not having the cca battery or is this expected at this time of year?

[numus]

I checked the fluid level this fall and during the summer as well I did need to ad some distilled water to the compartments but it is not as though it was leaking or super low.

Another question....

Even when I had my charger on high amp jump-start mode it took a very long time to crank over. I had to hold the start button down continuelsy ever after it turned over. Then once it got going it would rev crazy high for a moment then return and stall. In the warm months I have to run with the choke open for a good 30 sec to a min. This time I could not get it to idle for several minutes. The bike does not like to be between 1000-2500 rpm it is either revving high or stalling low no middle ground. Is this something other than just not having the cca battery or is this expected at this time of year?

May have a clogged pilot jet (along with other jets)... Also when batteries go bad, they actually turn into giant energy drains and work against your electrical system

[steves]

A lot of people use a battery tender regardless of the temperature if the bike will sit for any length of time. The nice thing about the Ballistic battery (and probably the Shorai as well), is that you don't need a battery tender. My bike sat for a month because of cold, rainy weather on the weekends. Fired it up last Sunday, it was still cold... but it fired right up. I didn't have it on a battery tender. Yes these batteries are much more expensive but I think they are worth it.

My First season with the Shorai, i kept an eye on the voltage levels. My battery dipped a little low so I threw the tender on

http://www.shoraipower.com/s.nl/it.I/id.5/.f

Remember on some bikes there are accessories like clocks for instance that draw a small amount of power all the time.