My Lithium battery experience

[Allan Bagley]

Last feb I decided to replace my battery after the bike seemed reluctant to start during cold weather. ST is kept outside, but temps aren't too bad in Seattle and the the bike was used mostly for a fairly short daily commute and was otherwise very healthy. For some reason (?) I bought an X2Power CYL10030 Lithium battery from Batteries Plus nearby. Amazingly light in weight I marveled that it could do the trick. Seemed ok. Maybe cranked a little slow when really cold but always started, except once when I left the ignition and headlights on while I ate breakfast one day, at which point it was stone cold dead. Bit of a charge and I was back on the road. A few months later, early this fall, I noted that on cold mornings the bike was cranking slow before starting and that my clock and odometer would reset! Battery showed a full charge. I replaced it with a Motobatt, which I have used for years in my Guzzis and has never showed any sign of weakness whatsoever even after the bakes have been parked for months on end. Pretty sure that headlights on for an hour would not phase it.

 

[T_C]

I bought an X2Power CYL10030 Lithium battery from Batteries Plus nearby.

Yeah.. I would be going back anbd asking for a refund. that is not nearly the equivalent battery to a ST sized one. It was a 2ah (real) 7ah (equivalent). It would have been light and amazing performance in decent weather, but you were pushing the limits. Not only in reserve capacity but in cranking power too. Those cells were probably gasping turning the ST 13 engine over. Sorry for the bad experience.

Basically, you just about bought an emergency starter pack and were using it as a main battery.

 

[beemerphile]

By time you buy a quality lithium battery with the real vs equivalent AH rating, and get one good enough to have good battery management with cell balancing and protection electronics built-in - and buy the proper lithium specific charger - it costs as much as four Yuasas. I have an Earthx ETX36 that I have had in three bikes now. I still don't see it making economic sense, but it has been a good battery. Who knows how long it will last? Not likely four times longer. Lithiums are very sensitive to over-discharge and if your AH-equivalent sized unprotected lithium goes flat, it will diminish its already undersized capacity to something unusable. On cold mornings you will have to use some of its under-rated capacity to run the headlight and warm it up so it can produce a few amps.

 

[SMSW]

I have heard that completely discharging a Lithium batt is no good for its health.

We have had a bit of a cold spell here in Cleveland, and I keep my garage heated to 40 deg F (plumbing drain runs thru it). When I tried to start my ST with its Shorai Lithium yesterday, it clicked but the headlight seemed bright. So I waited, counted out the 30 seconds, seemed like forever, and hit the starter button. She turned right over and started immediately. Lesson that I had read about (re starting in cold weather) was learned!

 

[Daboo]

Batteries are a "commodity". In other words, for the normal battery like what came with the bike, there is very little difference from A to B to C...except the price. It's not rocket science. I paid $48 for my last battery. I just look up the model number of the OEM battery and do a search. Lots of alternatives come up. I then look for the same or more CCA. Then I look at the customer reviews.

Chris

 

[beemerphile]

If you turned your headlights on for an hour on your '07 ST, that Motobatt would be legs up.
YMMV

That would be about 1/2 of its fully charged capacity. So if it was in good health the battery would be fine. The question is open whether a 1/2 charged Motobatt could still convince a cold sleepy ST13 to make motorcycle noises. Probably not.

 

[Allan Bagley]

I agree that at the time I bought that lithium I was pressed and bought what batteries plus told me would work. It was an impulsive buy and not very smart.

 

[Larry Fine]

This past spring, my '01 started instantly after three or four months under cover parked outside, no charger. And that was on an AGM I bought at Walmart in August of '18.

 

[T_C]

That would be about 1/2 of its fully charged capacity.

Yes, but that fully charged capacity is if you pull it all out over a 24 period. If you try to pull 7+ amps out of a 14amp/hr battery in an hour... well... you won't. That's one of the reasons why 10 minutes can seemingly kill an ST battery.

 

[SteveST1300]

The thing with lithium batteries is if its below 40 degrees you need to warm the battery up before starting I turn the ignition on for 30 seconds to a minute and then it fires the bike right up if not it just cranks slowly.

 

[jmcarruth]

I have had a MMG lithium in my ST for over three years with no issues. But, you need to be aware that a lithium battery has about 1/3 the capacity of a similar AGM battery. So, beware of parasitic drain. Also, if you fully drain one, it is ruined. There is lots of literature out there on this. My Ducati and my KLR also have Scorpion lithium batteries, no issues. The KLR can go for months without a charge due to no parasitic drain.

 

[technotony007]

I purchased a lithium battery a few years back , never had any issues with what so ever. never had a charger on it as yet.

 

[Shawn K]

I have a Shorai lithium battery in my ST1300 (it was there when I bought it), and while it's fine when the weather's warm, it falls flat on its face when the temps start dropping into the 40's. I'm not happy at all with its cold weather performance. When I was on my recent trip and it was 36 degrees outside, it took 20 minutes of lights-on and two failed cranking attempts before she'd finally spin fast enough to start.

I think I'm going to get a standard AGM battery. I know that a good quality lead-acid battery will still crank in the cold without me having to jump through hoops to get it going.

 

[Ken Valkyrie]

Copy from my reply to "Battery selection for 2009 ST1300 PA?" post

" My Shorai lithium battery is 7 years old, I installed it in my 2010 ST1300 December 9, 2012.
Currently my bike has 69,300 miles on it. I took it for a short ride the other day, it was 40 degrees here in MA, but I even saw another crazy guy riding his bike. It still starts great. I never expected it to last 7 years.
FYI: I have the Shorai LFX18A1-BS12, I paid $169.95 from Amazon (12/2012) "

 

[DaveWooster]

... I replaced it with a Motobatt, which I have used for years in my Guzzis and has never showed any sign of weakness whatsoever even after the bakes have been parked for months on end. Pretty sure that headlights on for an hour would not phase it.

Is your new Motobatt the older, lead-acid type?

And was the charger you used on your lithium one a standard charger, or one made especially for lithium type?

By the way, the best time I've found to check a battery's voltage is right before you go for a ride.
I know that is hard if you are in a hurry to get going.
But doing so should give you a reliable prediction as to whether your battery is ready for the ride.
(And even bad news is better than no news.)

 

[ST Gui]

By the way, the best time I've found to check a battery's voltage is right before you go for a ride.

Was that from another source (given the different typeface)?

Pushing the starter button would do that and give you an immediate answer. For just routine riding I'd want to check the night before but in cold weather the morning could yield a different result. For anything longer than a day's ride I'd want to check with enough lead time to get a new battery.

 

[DaveWooster]

Was that from another source (given the different typeface)?
Pushing the starter button would do that and give you an immediate answer. For just routine riding I'd want to check the night before but in cold weather the morning could yield a different result. For anything longer than a day's ride I'd want to check with enough lead time to get a new battery.

That is from the same source, just smaller type using the T posting option here.
Maybe a better way to say it is that the worst time to check battery voltage is right after you shut off the engine. Voltage then tells you almost nothing.
And sometimes riders think that if their battery starts the engine, it will be ready for the ride. (That's not always true.)

 

[wjbertrand]

I've got a year in now on the LiFePO4 Scorpion battery (SSTZ14S-FP) I installed in my Yamaha Super Tenere. It's had no problem cranking the bike in temperatures down into the mid 40s so far. I think these big displacement odd firing (270 degree crank) 2 cylinder engines are harder to start than many similarly sized and larger four cylinder bikes. The OEM YTZ12S battery never gave good starting confidence and in a few cases would crank too slow to start the engine at all. The relevance to the ST1300 here is that this is the exact same battery that Scorpion recommends for fitment to that bike.

 

[Shawn K]

When I bought my ST13, it had (has) a Shorai lithium battery (the correct model number for this bike), along with the Shorai charger. I've taken great pains to use the charger to keep the cells balanced and battery fully charged.

That Shorai battery is a sterling turd, and I will replace it with a proper, brand new, virgin Yuasa AGM battery with gin-yoo-wine acid in it, the way God intended.

In my experience, this lithium battery absolutely falls on its face below about 50 degrees. It simply can't generate the cranking amps to spin the engine properly to light it. On a recent trip, I found myself at a hotel on a 25 degree morning. Guess what didn't have the juice to start my bike? Even after letting the bike sit with the lights on for a good 10-15 minutes (Shorai's own recommendation for "warming up" the battery), the voltage drop during cranking was so bad that my trip meters, clock, and fuel economy reading all reset. I managed to get it started, but just barely.

A lithium battery is fine if you're cranking over a Honda Grom full of 5W in 85 degree weather while coasting downhill, but if you're someone like me who rides year-round in weather down to the teens, lithium batteries are an expensive, flimsy, ecologically unsound piece of ego-stroking elitist crap that aren't worth the powder to blow them straight to Hell.

Wanna save several pounds of unnecessary weight on your bike? Go on a diet. I know I could stand to.

 

[T_C]

A lithium battery is fine if you're cranking over a Honda Grom full of 5W in 85 degree weather while coasting downhill, but if you're someone like me who rides year-round in weather down to the teens, lithium batteries are an expensive, flimsy, ecologically unsound piece of ego-stroking elitist crap that aren't worth the powder to blow them straight to Hell.

Hmm... riding into the teens, nope. My lithium started my ST13 at -5° last year. Must be my ego makes it work. It's only two years old so it's probably just barely broken in.

Enjoy the diet.