Battery Issues on the 14.

[Tonythetiger]

A few month's ago I decided to buy a fancy new Lithium battery (£110.00) for my bike, I was well impressed with how light it was and how small it was. Now I've just bought a lead acid battery (£40.00) as I have had nothing but problems since fitting the Lithium one, you can't leave the ignition lights on for more than a couple of minutes or it's to flat to start the bike and I've had to jump start the bike 5 times since it was fitted. It has loads of CCA but only if it can hold it's charge and yes I do have a good trickle charger (4 tbh)I find that the old lead acid battery still gives better life to the bike and I think she runs better on a bit of lead. Has anyone else had this issue?
                                                                    t.t.t

[Hooli]

I've got a feeling not all chargers work with lithium batteries & not all lithium batteries work with standard charging systems on bikes. I can't recall the details of why, but it's something to do with charging voltages/amps etc.

[Eric GSX1400K3]

Correct Hooli, you need a special charger for lithium batteries, a charger for lead acid or agm batteries are more likely to kill a lithium battery.

This is a suitable lithium charger: https://www.ctek.com/business-au/battery-chargers-12v-24v/lithium-xs-aus

The advantage of lithium batteries is that they can handle being discharged a lot more.

I am also thinking that you may have a generator issue that your battery is not being charged while the bike is running g.

[Hooli]

I am also thinking that you may have a generator issue that your battery is not being charged while the bike is running g.

I've remembered what I was thinking of around this now.

I know on old classics with zenner diodes you have to upgrade to a MOSFET reg/rec to use lithium batteries, so I wonder if the old diode style reg/rec on a 14 doesn't work with them either? Otherwise it'd be much cheaper for classic bike owners to upgrade to our style of reg/rec.

[steve porter]

I had Shorai lithiums in 4 bikes a few years back 2 851''s 1989 and 1991, a mid 80's santamonica F1 and a 73 750 GT, with the correct Shorai chargers, which I still have, all 4 worked fine being charged by bike or charger for a couple of years and one by one stopped working at all, expensive excersise that I'm not sure I would bother with again 

[grog]

Steve, lithium in Diavel i had still good at 4 yrs.Just lucky i guess. Ive tried AGM in 14, both failed just over a year. Keep looking for better but sealed lead acid still seem to rule.

[steve porter]

Steve, lithium in Diavel i had still good at 4 yrs.Just lucky i guess. Ive tried AGM in 14, both failed just over a year. Keep looking for better but sealed lead acid still seem to rule.

Yea, they are probably better now, but for the price I would want a 5 year warranty to have another go