Any recommendation on a battery for my beast?
I have a sealed battery in my Venture, it's been good to me, but I am too lazy to take off the plastic tank and look at the brand.
Any recommendations for '83 vision is appreciated.
Thanks.
I should add that I take care of my batteries. Heated garage and battery tendered through winters.
It depends on your expectations and how much you want to spend. I just got a cheapo for mine at advance auto, $50. I had an AGM in it before but I didn't give a very good test as it sat unused for over three years when my carburetors got ruined. I have a LiFePo in my RZ, I have had it for a couple of years but it has little demand on that bike. I haven't priced one for the Vision but I would not get one before I try the series R\R. A potentially unstable charging system might not be the best place to test a battery that might catch on fire.
I have bought a couple of the battery tender brand LiFePO batteries off of amazon.
(link)
https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-BTL14A240C-Lithium-Phosphate/dp/B00F9LPJ8S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473891413&sr=8-1&keywords=battery+tender+motorcycle+battery
They are unbelievably small and light and can be mounted any direction.
The only real down side that I have heard about is that in very cold weather you need to turn on the ignition and possibly a light for a bit to get the battery warmed up and flowing current.
I cant speak to long term durability since I have only had mine for about 18 months.
I have the same Li battery on my Vision. Smallest Li battery I could find, and less expensive than the larger ones.
Full disclosure: The first BT battery I had of this variety swelled and overheated. BUT, I think it was a result of a bad R/R. This second one is holding up nicely. Of course I went with a Series R/R in hopes of preventing any more issues like that. Yes, I have a new, aftermarket stator as well.
Steve
I've had good luck with MotoBatt batteries. You also get the added advantage of posts on both sides. This allows me to use the same battery in the Vision and the VfR.
I have a Extreme AGM battery in mine. It's made by the East penn company. It's now 8 years old and still working fine.
I've got a Shorai lithium ion battery in one of my Visions and really like it but a friend of mine posted a picture of one of those batteries that caught on fire and that sort of dampened my enthusiasm. His was in a BMW and I suspect a BMW puts out a lot more amperage than one of our Visions.
Since you already have it, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I think the fires are related to internal damage to the battery due to impact and not from overcharging.
That was not the case in this instance. I know the guy who posted the pictures and he's a fine mechanic. He thinks something happened to the voltage regulator on his 1150 BMW and caused the problem. You know they don't allow some Samsung phones on airplanes and you are not allowed to carry lithium batteries in checked luggage so the airlines must think there is something wrong with them. I'm going to keep the ones I've got but I'm not buying any more. If I can find the pictures I'll post them here. They made a believer out of me.
One of the best things I bought for my bike is the MotoBatt battery, seems to hold charge for months and is completely sealed.
Maintenance free and ready to use straight away. Will keep cranking and engine over when other would have died.
I can't even remeber when I bought it but it must be over 5 years ago.
Next best thing was Iridium Spark plugs.
I've got a 75 Triumph T160 that's always had a starting problem and this year I decided to fix it. I changed over from a Boyer electronic ignition to a TriSpark which is supposed to crank at 8 volts. I think the problem was that the starter was pulling so much current that the ignition wouldn't fire the plugs. Anyway I changed the ignition, pulled the starter apart and cleaned it up, and put a Ulysses battery in it. It's really heavy but I've had one in my KLR for 9 years and it can sit for months and still crank that big 650 single so I think they would work great on a Vision.
Another thing I've ordered but haven't received for the T160 is a set of battery cables from Motolectric in San Francisco. Everyone on the Triumph triples forum swears by them so I'm going to try them. The bike cranks very good now but I've had the thing for 25 years and it never cranked as I thought it should so I'm going to throw everything at it at once and maybe from now intil I can't ride any more it'll be good. Then it'll be someone else's problem. The cables are expensive ($125 a set) but if they make a noticeable difference on the T160 I'm going to contact them and have a set made for the Vision. I'll report back with the results. And thanks for the tip on the Iridum plugs. I'll get some of those next tuneup.