battery

[rooster]

 Newbee to vision and the forum. I bought and 82 about a month ago in great shape and runs. Im interested in a battery and saw about Dekto  or something like that , where are they available? Rooster

[lexx790]

Hi and welcome to the forum from the UK side of the pond.
I orginally had a standard lead acid battery but after a couple of years needed a change.
One of the best upgrades I've done, with the bike, was getting a Gel battery, maintenance free and excellent starting power.

[hoverhead47]

Hi Rooster, I am a long time owner of a XZ550, in those 30 years I have changed about 4 batteries.  I opted for maintenance free due to the problem I found with the overflow/vent tube on the old style batteries.  Unfortunately the last battery was not at all good and tricked me into believing that I had an electrical problem with the starter circuit.  A more recent new Absorbed Glass Matt battery has shown up the old "new" battery as the culprit.  My advise is you can go for an ordinary lead acid battery if money is you main concern and you use the bike very often, but a better choice would be one of those yellow AGM batteries.  I bought one last month and it has been starting the engine without drama even though the bike is not used of weeks at a time.  Something I cannot claim for the previous AGM battery!  It apparently failed after only the first two weeks!
It is not hard to find out what battery you need, the battery is common to many other bikes as well.

[fret not]

That would be DEKA battery.  I have not tried one but they seem to get good reviews.  Deep cycle style, so I guess it should be a pretty resilient battery.

[QBS]

A well maintained lead acid unit and a thoughtfully applied Deltran Battery Tender Jr. is a good combination.  Riding the bike often is very good for dependability.  Back in the day when the V was my primary transport, it was very dependable.  Later, when it became secondary/fun transport, that decreased somewhat..

[rooster]

Thanks guys I'll wait till spring for a new battery but will be looking .

[fret not]

Yes, frequent use extends battery life.  Infrequent use shortens it.  Batteries 'like' to be gently discharged and charged frequently. :police:

[PwrManDan]

I agree with the AGM batteries.  Three years going strong on two bikes.  In my case I can orientate the battery any way I want EXCEPT upside down.  I had to redo the terminals a little bit but I will one day try to get a custom built Tigerized lead set made for them.

[motoracer8]

 I have a 7 year old Deka AGM battery in a electric start Norton Commando, still going strong.

Same size that goes in a Vision.

[fret not]

Ken, do you keep a float charger on it, or do you use it often?  If you use a float charger system what is it?

[supervision]

  Hey fret, I bought my first one 10-4-02 EXT15l AGM Deka , it lasted until 12-12-11 same battery. The only charger I use is a 1/2 amp charger and I only put it on when the resting voltage gets down to 12.6. Full charged is 12.8. They tried to sell me a fancier charger when I bought the new one, but I'm not convinced it would be better??

[fret not]

Good to know.  Thanks.  That sounds like the right sort of battery for me.

[motoracer8]

 Hi Mike, I have two Battery tenders. I have several motorcycles with batteries and during the cold weather I don't ride them much so I remove the batteries and move the tender from battery to battery every couple of weeks. Works for me.

The Yamaha and the Norton use the same battery so I trade it back and forth.  I keep a tender on my BMW as its the one I ride the most. It will kill a battery if I let it set for a month or more. Too many electrical draws on new motorcycles.

[fret not]

Thanks for the information.

It's not just the "modern" BMWs that drain batteries.  I think all (mid 70s) that had a clock would run down, and I don't think it was just the clock causing the drain.

[motoracer8]

 Modern motorcycles like cars have too many memory's that need to stay alive and slowly drain the battery.  I have a 70's BMW with a clock, it can sit for for some time and it will still start, the newer one not so.

The old one has a 30 amp battery. The newer one a 18 amp battery.

[supervision]

 That is a good point on the modern memory systems, drawing all the time. Our new YAMAHA FZ-07 has memory,  I noticed 13.25 resting voltage, I need to see how it reacts to siting around, and maybe my .5 amp charger won't cut it.

[motoracer8]

 I have a wall wart battery tender for my newer BMW, it puts out .5 amp and keeps up fine.

It will charge a low battery but it takes some time..

Battery tender also makes a charger with a 1.25 amp charge rate and it does a good job on all batteries.

[dpequip]

I sprung some coin on a Li-Ion battery for the Vision in the spring and couldn't be happier.  The Vision has never started this easily and the weight reduction is outstanding.  Li-Ion has a much lower self discharge rate than lead acid so it can sit with no ill effects and does not need topped up.  Next battery I buy for the Bandit will also be Li-Ion.  Very impressive piece of improved battery technology.

[fret not]

Li-ion batteries are great unless they become over charged, then they can start burning, so keep an eye on your voltage.  If the Reg/Rec starts being flakey it needs to be attended to ASAP.

[dpequip]

Thanks for the heads up.  My understanding is that, there is an internal circuit inside the Li-Ion battery that takes care of making sure individual cells are not overcharged and that each cell is charged to the proper level.  Most Visions have problems keeping batteries charged due to stator issues. This seems a more likely problem.  Thermal runaway of Li-Ion is something to be aware of but is not a likely problem when the internal control circuit is working properly.