In praise of Yuasa batteries
 

When I got my 06 plate K6 in summer 2015, it still had the factory-fit Yuasa. The dealer I bought the bike from also gave me a new Chinese-brand battery, telling me that they like to fit a new battery to the bikes they sell but they didn't have one in stock when they were servicing the bike pre-sale.

No worries, I fitted the new battery in winter 2015 when the Yuasa was obviously getting a bit tired and unable to spin the starter quickly (even though the bike had never failed to start).

Fast forward two years to yesterday. I'd noticed the Chinese-brand battery had been struggling a bit in the colder weather recently, but yesterday it could only turn the starter once before dying. This was despite it being on the optimiser overnight, and regularly hooked up to it. Removed the seat, connected my bigger 'fast' bike charger, brought the battery back up to 14V, tried again. No dice - the starter ground over once, then the battery cried enough.

So I thought I'd try the 11-year-old Yuasa, which had been in a box in the cold garage for two years. I'd hooked it to the Optimiser for a couple of hours maybe three times in those two years, just to keep it alive as a spare. Checked the voltage across the terminals: 12.5V, not bad. Put it on the rapid charger for a couple of mins - voltage went up to 14+.

Put it on the bike, hit the button and it only went and fired the bike up. Sure, the starter didn't spin fast, but the battery kept it churning until the motor lit up. That's a new Yuasa on order, then.

(The YTX12-BS is currently £42 from Amazon with free delivery, compared to £57 from Halfords)

Re: In praise of Yuasa batteries
 

Totally agree about Yuasa, used to be in the business of making the machines used to make batteries and one of our customers was Yuasa - the technology, quality control and care that went into their batteries was leaps ahead of others. I have had other batteries fail on me quite quickly (normally ones in vehicles and bikes I have bought second hand) but for myself I always buy Yuasa and never have a problem - at the moment both our cars have Yuasa 'silver' batteries, and when the battery on my AL7 dies (as it will) guess which battery is going in there to replace it.

Batteries are too important a part of modern cars and bikes to skimp on them, and what is a tenner extra when spread over 8 years + (normally if you buy cheap you buy twice).

Re: In praise of Yuasa batteries
 

Mine has one of the uprated Yuasas in it, I think a YTZ12S- and I just charged it from completely dead after 2 years and it came back strong. Not quite as good as new I think, it seems a little low on capacity but it still cranks stronger than standard. Ridiculous.

Re: In praise of Yuasa batteries
 

Leaving any lead acid battery at a low state of charge is the worst kind of battery abuse -although AGM will tolerate it better - once plates start to sulphate up (plates get coated up with inactive lead sulphate crystals that drastically reduces their capacity) there is no real cure, a battery kept in its top 20% of charge will be a happy battery for many, many years.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/a..._to_prevent_it

Re: In praise of Yuasa batteries
 

My genuine Yuasa died today, K3 naked, 15 years of service, kept it on conditioner regularly.

Re: In praise of Yuasa batteries
 

I approve this praise wouldn't fit anything else proper quality.