I need a good replacement battery

[old_chopper]

In Saskatoon a bike battery has to sit unused for 5 months each winter.
My 12 point battery storage plan has been whittled down to
Step 1) Remove the battery in the fall
Step 2) Toss it
Step 3) Buy a new one in the spring

I hate that you have to park your rides for 5 months but I love how you simplify things!!!

[edavi394]

thanks for the answers I got the info needed. I am sorry to bother posting here. it seams asking a question is not as welcome as it once was... I will try not to error again.

[edavi394]

i almost forgot...

I always like to help where I can, so maybe some one will find some help in this thread. I found this battery http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...#ht_4594wt_939
I will either get it or one of the walmart as suggested by members here....

[crazy steve]

thanks for the answers I got the info needed. I am sorry to bother posting here. it seams asking a question is not as welcome as it once was... I will try not to error again.

Questions are always welcome here. But asking about tires, oil, and batteries will almost always open a can of worms and fail to deliver a 'definitive' answer..

From personal experience and what I've seen on another list I'm on, the sealed 'maintainence-free' batteries just don't hold up. A few rare individuals get a 'better' service life out of them, but for most, 2-3 service years seems to be the norm. I've gotten much better life out of conventional non-sealed units with proper care. Add in the higher price for a sealed battery, and they just don't make sense to me.

Remember, 'maintainence-free' also means you can't do any maintainence, even if it's needed...

[yamahansolo]

I have a maintenance free one and they dedunatly last longer! I have had this one for about 4 years never one even our it on the charger. 100 bucks at advanced.ill have to look are the name

[fredintoon]

I hate that you have to park your rides for 5 months but I love how you simplify things!!!

Hi old chopper,
it's more an explanation of my own incompetence. With proper care one should be able to over-winter a battery.
But over the years I have managed to:-
Forget about the monthly re-charge so it went flat & died.
Forget to disconnect the trickle charger so it boiled dry & died.
This spring's trick was to get the BSA's battery through the winter, fire the bike up and then leave the ignition switched on for a month so the battery got sucked flat & died.
Now I've added step 3(a) to my simplified plan.
Tie a loop of cord through the key and hang the key on the mirror as a signal that the ignition is off.
My battery problems do seem to be limited to bike batteries. The 550CCA car battery in my sidecar rig has thrived on neglect over 5 winters so far.

[fredintoon]

Remember, 'maintainence-free' also means you can't do any maintainence, even if it's needed...

Hi Steve, what's worse is if you think it's maintenence free and it ain't. The family Olds battery died 'way out in the Rockies.
Only 3 years old, I say, WTF?
Check the water level sez electrical engineer son-in-law.
Can't, it's a sealed battery.
No it ain't, it only looks like one, pry these covers off.
Looks like a desert down there.
Luckily my daughter still had some pure Alberta bottled water left to top it up.
An hour later the battery had recovered enough to get a start.

[cywelchjr]

I have a maintenance free one and they dedunatly last longer! I have had this one for about 4 years never one even our it on the charger. 100 bucks at advanced.ill have to look are the name

From personal experience and that of those around me, and what the battery shops around here tell me, your experience is atypical. Most people seem to get LESS life from the sealed batteries rather than more, so you appear to be having much better luck that others have been having.

Just because your experience it different than others, doesn't make theirs invalid, it just make it different, no better and no worse. That's why the quality of a survey it directly proportional to the size of the sample, the greater the sample size the greater reflection of reality it becomes. If we could ALL buy the same maint free battery you do, and treat it exactly the same as you do we could probably get the same results, unfortunately, the batteries available in an area are often different by region, so a given battery is sometimes not even available in another region, as it may only be carried by a certain vendor, and there are no advanced autos around here, not a one.

[yamahansolo]

I have a maintenance free one and they dedunatly last longer! I have had this one for about 4 years never one even our it on the charger. 100 bucks at advanced.ill have to look are the name

[somesuch]

For me the maintenance free batteries lasted much longer .... 5-6 years. I am now trying the Shorai, LiFe, supposed to last much much longer and weighs much less.

[Larrym]

JC Penney "Lifetime" Battery???

"maintenance free battery"???
"zero maintenance battery"???

These are only labels applied to the batteries by the manufacturers. Then of course, the consumer/customer reads these labels and treats these batteries as if those labels were actually true. This usually means that the customer has the battery installed or installs the battery himself/herself and then forgets about the battery. In the customer's mind there is no further reason to even look at the battery much less perform any "maintenance" which would get their hands "dirty" .

Even if the "maintenance free battery/zero maintenance batteries" doesn't need any fluid level check with the subsequent addition of the "proper" distilled water, the battery posts themselves do require "maintenance". Otherwise that delightful green "patina" on the positive battery cable connection can grow into a respectably sized lump of corrosion making it impossible to determine the true shape of the cable/post connection.

Me? I call them "sealed maintenance batteries". I have found that speaking about them in this manner leads to treating them in a way that works better for me and all the vehicles I've had them installed in.

[jetmechmarty]

I have a Deka AGM battery in my bike. It's been in three years or so. I'm happy. I got mine from BATTERY-WEB.COM. I got fast service and a good price. I'll buy my next battery from there too!

I've had my XS650 since 1983. I used to put a new battery in it every year. That bike will shake a lead-acid battery to pieces! I put an AGM battery in it in 2004. It's still going!

Marty (in Germany)

[yamahansolo]

Sorry for the spelling issues Droid was on the Fritz.

I am not just talking about the xs11. I have owned around 10 bikes. Of course I meant maintenance free by charging all the time
. Of course you have to clean the posts. All the bikes I owned with batteries you have trickle all the time never lasted more than a year or so and they were a bitch and a half to crank in the cold. All of them several different brands.
Now as I was saying I got this battery as birthday present to put in my xj11. Never hooked it up to the xj. This was October 07. I bought my current daily rider Feb 08.
That being said this battery sat from October to February when I installed it. I got the f and took out the old battery and thus one fired up first try. I don't think it was even listed for the XS. I think it only listed it as an xj battery. Anywho. I ride all year unless its below 32 . I installed grip heaters in 09. Like a dummy left them on all night... and realized it when I got on the bike thenext day. I was so frustrated that I installed the jumper cables backwards like w dummy and fried the rectifier ... oops.
I had to get the one from the xj and rewire it to fit the f.
This took a day or so then I jumped it of and let it run for a min. Then took off and its been running ever since. This past winter it was much colder here so I didn't ride for 2 months. Dec till Feb. It fired right up first time.
I am not sure why you got upset about my post CY. I thought this was asking which one would be a good one... I was out when I wrote the last post and I think I said I wouldlook for the name when I got home.
As far as sealed vs non sealed all my newer bikes had sealed. Never charged them ever. All my older bikes. 79 xs750, 82 gpz750, 86 yx600, and something else had the non sealed type all I repeat all of them sucked. And had to be replaced every year or so. My zx7, yzf600r, vmax, and this xs11 never once needed a charge.
We had a major problem with rain getting it our front door and found a little bit of rotting underneath and I haven't got a chance to check the name of the battery. Also I bought it from advanced. However they didn't carry it it was ordered by my wide so its something you don't need an advanced for.you can just order them online.
Sorry if I offended Anyone . And please feel free to post questions there's nothing wrong with it.

[Azoroth]

I work at an Oreilly auto parts here in UT. We sell the batteries here at my work. Just to let everyone know that you can get them there.

[yamahansolo]

Ok... ran and took a qwik pic. With my droid . These things are awesome!

Any who didn't see the name but it has part number. You can read it and probably Google it. Also the last photo shows that while being sealed it lookalike you can pop it open... it is working great right now so I am not going to pop it open till I research it. When I get a min ill see if its an issue to open it and ill check the level in there.
I am not sure who all you guts are talking to about sealed batteries nit being great but I am almost positive that all modern bikes come with sealed batteries.
You guys that are having issues with sealed batteries. Are you treating it like a regular maintenance battery? Ie are you charging them monthly or weekly? Maybe that's the issue. Maybe the constant charging is killing them?
Also I noticed several others besides me had great luck with sealed. Did you guts charge your ever or on what schedule? Any way

here are the pics..