ATOM Battery for ST1300 - Opinions ?

[jfheath]

My new to me, 6400 mile ST1300A8 has come equipped with a tell tale history of poor workmanship - but it looks pristine.

Today I unearthed a battery (I took the side panel off) - an ATOM MGZ14S. Probably recently added, since the last 4 years was without an MOT, and the Optimate is not spotting any issues. I reckon that it is a cheap install to get the bike working for the showroom.



But it has a 'Made in China' label - which instantly calls into play all of the very few bigotted opinions that I hold.
It looks cheap and nasty and (bigoted opinions alert) my head tells me that it will let me down the first time it gets cold, or burst into flames the first time it gets hot. And a reality alert based on experience - if anything can possibly go wrong, it will.

I'll start a thread soon on dealing with an almost brand new 18 year old ST1300. It'll be fun.

 

[bdalameda]

https://fliesonthevisor.com/atom-batteries-winer-test/

 

[Nightmare]

https://fliesonthevisor.com/atom-batteries-winer-test/

I wish they elaborated more about how they did their test, like coating a battery in a bit of water, freezing the outside for a few minutes and having it hit the floor to break off the ice isn't that impressive of a test vs having a 10 year old battery sitting at -40 overnight and still being able to crank a ST1300.

For my last battery I debated between the tried and true Yuasa and a no-name Home Depot battery for literally 1/3 of the price. Both batteries had the EXACT same specifications (size, weight, CCA) and very surprisingly warranty. If Yuasa, which I have been using for about 20 years now, is SUCH a fantastic battery why the short warranty? My bikes which I would ride 70km per day 4 times a week during the riding season and leave on a battery tender in a heated garage over the winter would never last more than 4-5 years. So if I get 2 years out of my no name battery I'm financially ahead.

But what if the battery fails me? To start batteries rarely just suddenly die during the season, usually there are signs (long cranking times and dim lights) that it is getting weak and most of the time out right failures happen during the spring thaw when the season starts.

Actually now that I think of it, I have had a battery die while I was away from the house, in the spring (see line above) after the battery sat on a tender all winter, I fired up the bike, rode to the gas station a few blocks away, shut the bike off (long line up, I don't like idling forever) and when I went to restart the battery was too weak to work. But that was a Yuasa battery...

 

[SMSW]

But it has a 'Made in China' label - which instantly calls into play all of the very few bigotted opinions that I hold.

A lot of us have those opinions, based on getting substandard merchandise in the past. However, remember that iPhones and a lot of other things are made in China, and that country is leading the battery (lithium) technology right now. It really comes down to individual brands, and we have no real way of assessing those.

@Nightmare - few of us test our batteries regularly. There are cheap testers all over Amazon (and probably elsewhere) that measure a battery's internal resistance and give a readout of it's useful CCA. I have no idea how good these things are, but maybe we should be checking our batteries once a year.

It is my understanding that there are only a handful (three?) of huge companies that make all of the lead acid batteries. (I think I learned that tidbit from another thread here.). The basic differences will come down to how they structure the plate framework and how they pack the plates with sponge lead. There are probably other ways to vary the quality of a battery, all similarly invisible to the user. The chemistry is pretty much standard for all of them (talking about lead acid).