Battery Question

[Bonz]

On my Kawasaki I bought a battery and the guy at the auto parts store gave me one which had the terminals reversed. It would not work on my Kawasaki as the cables are not that long to play with. Bought it back and got the right one but was not ready to ride as advertised so after having Napa load test it, it showed 50% charged and I just charged it 2 hours earlier. They gave me a newer one from the shelf and that one worked. It was a Duralast Gold battery EXT 14. Batteries at auto parts stores sit on shelves for months. They are not like milk and get discarded, once they sit so long.

For sure that was a good thread over on the ZRXOA forum.

Thinking more on what you posted above, my thought goes to whether auto parts stores sell many batteries. Seems someone is usually looking at batteries when I go back to the automotive section at Walmart and I can't recall the last time I saw someone looking at batteries at AutoZone as an example.

[oldyam80sg]

Very true Bonz. I looked at Tractor Supply-none,Lowes-none. I looked online and was tempted, but wanted to know if there was another issue besides the battery going on. They guy I dealt with got a bit angry with me, the women at night didn't and gave me another battery. I always wonder how long something sits on the shelf? The good thing about Walmart is usually if you show them a receipt, they have no issue with you returning things. I bought a battery years ago to put in a friends motorcycle. He didn't want to pay me, so I took the battery back to Walmart and explained that to them. They gave me my money back no issue.

[thebottle]

I've had good luck with the Duralast batteries. I have a regular lead acid one in my KLR that has survived 3 Wisconsin winters so far. And my wife has one of those in her NX250 going on two years. Prior to that I had one from Amazon died within a year. Didn't make it through the first winter in a garage. Bought one from Fleet Farm, not sure if you have those stores, but they are pretty big in Wisconsin. That one died within a year, first winter killed it. But then my brother has a cheap lead acid battery in his KLR that's like 4-5 years old and leaves his dang bike outside during the winters and it fires right up like nothing. So it's been hit and miss from what I've seen.

[Bonz]

When my battery, knock on wood, in the ZRX needed replacing three years ago I went with a lightweight lithium battery I found on Amazon that had good reviews. At the time they had a one year warranty however if I was to buy the same one it would be six months warranty.

It's seen a charger one time and that was when I put new pistons in and did extended cranking in spurts to get it fire, not realizing I had the leads for the coil packs on the wrong plugs so nothing would make it run. .

I wouldn't run a lithium in an XS, the main reason in the ZRX was it dropped 10 pounds off the bike. Stock weight is about 540 lb wet and with the full exhaust system and other parts swaps over the years the lithium battery took it under 500 lbs with a half tank of gas. I weighed it at a local landscaping yard, knew one of the young fellows working there. Also weighed the 80SG and it came in just a touch over 600 pounds which was right where it was rated.