New battery

[Foot]

Hello. Think I left my parking light on for the last couple of weeks when I've not been using my bike and I think the battery is done for... it's 100% dead (the alarm light doesn't flash at all) :smt011. Gonna leave it to charge for a day (just with the cheapo trickle charge I have), see if that helps but I'm not hopeful, since I get the impression when batteries fully discharge they're done for.
So anyway, any suggestions of which battery to get?

Yuasa seems best, but there might be a better deal if any of you know.

http://www.mdsbattery.co.uk/shop/productprofile.asp?ProductGroupID=2047

Foot.

[Bibio]

mine goes fully discharged in the winter but recovers ok again. reduces the lifespan of them though. it will need more than a day and mine usually takes about 1-2 week to fully recover using an oxford oximiser.

i got a new battery last year and the other one was the original 6 years old and i done the same to that one every year.

have fun with your alarm :-)

[Foot]

Battery has definitely given up. So any other suggestions other than a yuasa battery? Anything else I'll need?
What is the lube which is put on the terminals?

[ophic]

There's another battery that fits and is generally better, higher CCA and capacity. YTX14 or something like that - I can tell you exactly when I get home as it's sat on my charger right now.

I tend to go for Varta or some other well known brand as Yuasa seem to have a premium price attached to the name.

[ophic]

found the order in my email - YTZ14S fits a pointy.

[Steph1972]

"Yuasa seem to have a premium price attached to the name"

Yes I just paid £64.00 for a Yuasa at my local dealer which I thought was rather expensive but I needed it for the MOT the following day.

Like yourself every year mine goes dead over winter and usually a full charge fixes it, though this year when I put it on charge it read a full charge right away. I suspected something was up. Overnight charge and the voltage on my voltmeter read 12 odd volts so I thought it was ok, however under crank the votlage dropped.. the cells were not providing the amps the engine required to start. I think best practise would be to remove the battery over a non use spell and keep it somewhere warm then recharge it or better still ride your bike over the winter every second week for a few hours. Batteries dont like loosing their charge!

[atassiedevil]

I'd get a motobatt. Gives you a ton more cranking amps, and they're sealed so less hassle.
Usually cheaper than the yuasa equivalent too.

[ophic]

...and they're sealed so less hassle.
They're all sealed.

[aesmith]

I went for Motobatt, but I'm not sure I'd do so again as there are more points of failure in the connections - one screw holding the terminal "block" (actually a bit of folded metal) onto the battery, and a separate screw holding the lead onto the "block". The position of the terminals also means you need more clearance around the battery if you don't want the leads touching something.

[Foot]

Motobatt it was. £45 is pretty good, gets more cranking power than most batteries around that price. I get what you mean about there being a lot of things which could go wrong on it, I agree, but then are the terminals that likely to get battered about (or battery-eed about..)?


have fun with your alarm :-)

Did not disappoint.

[aesmith]

... are the terminals that likely to get battered about (or battery-eed about..)?
I found it fiddly to get the cable terminals tight without twisting and loosening the screws that hold the blocks onto the battery. Having said that it's not given trouble in service so maybe not an issue. I did intend to replace the folded "blocks" with solid, with longer screws running directly through the cable and the block into the battery, but haven't got around to working it out.