recommendations for a new battery.

Actually, got the make wrong, mines a Dynavolt. The Yuasa was the other one i was quoted on. Paid around 60 squids.

cool, thanks for the info. there is a battery specialist near where i live. gona drop them a line tomorow and see what the best battery i can get is!

what are the pros and cons of the acid and gel batteries?

Gel batteries contain (as the name suggests) no liquid so will not spew acid everywhere in the event of a case split. They also require no maintenance i.e topping up with distilled water. Gel batteries can also dispense their charge at a higher rate than liquid bats and also lose charge via self-discharge at a lower rate.

Cons are you pay a premium for them. If you look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gel_battery#Gel_battery then it seems there are also types called AGM that seem even better but not heard of that before.