Lithium battery?

388 Views 9 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Stumac, 7 d ago

Taurus

Discussion Starter · 9 d ago

My 2018 Bobber is on its original Yuasa battery which seems to be working fine but it's now five years old so it will want replacing before too long.

If I've read things correctly you can replace the original lead acid battery with a lithium version without needing to do anything to the bike. The new battery should include whatever magic is needed to work off the bike's charging system.

But you do need a dedicated lithium charger if you want to give the battery a trickle charge.

One thing I read recently is that lithium batteries don't hold as many amps as lead acid. I think Fortnine did a YouTube piece which showed that a direct replacement 9Ah lithium battery only had 3Ah. I'm guessing that's not a problem unless you go and leave something switched on when the engine isn't running.

So for those who have experience of lithium batteries:

Are they plug and play with nothing else needed to be done?

Has anyone found any issues with them not holding as many amps as lead acid?

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Enoch

· #2 · 9 d ago

Why do you want to go to the extra expense worry and management of lithium over lead acid?
The battery on my 6 year old Bobber is still going strong I’ll just replace like with like when the time comes.

As my wife always reminds me… don’t fix what isn’t broken🤪🤪

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atomsplitter

· #3 · 9 d ago

The biggest reason to switch to lithium is weight savings, at least that was the consensus when a lot of Rocket owners switched to the lithiums because they saved about 10 pounds in weight. I'll stick with AGM on my Bobber.

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Northern bobber

· #4 · 8 d ago

I bought one for my 999. Plug and play. The weight was not why I bought it, cold weather cranking power was. That bike has a small battery every lead acid will not start the bike below 5c. The lithium does. My stock Bobbers battery is almost twice the size as the lithium one. The Bobbers battery is going on 6 years old in July and going great, when it does go I won’t replace it with lithium, the stock one work fine and cost way less.

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Clem Fandango

· #5 · 8 d ago

I replaced the original agm battery in my Speed Triple with a Noco lithium battery last summer and like @Northern bobber, it was simply plug and play. And maybe £25 more than a direct AGM replacement, so not significant. The battery itself contains the battery management system so you don’t have to do anything to it or the bike to make it work safely. The only thing I did is to install a Noco pigtail on it so that I would t inadvertently connect my Optimate trickle charger by accident. I got a specific Noco charger for it. I bought it for the way Lithium batteries stay ready to go for longer between use of the bike, and the weight saving is a bonus. The Noco comes with additional plastic blocks to make it up to the same physical size as your original battery. When the time comes to replace it on the Bobber I’ll be buying a lithium battery.

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MoxyDave

· #6 · 8 d ago

I've used a couple Lithium batteries in dirt bikes. They're super fiddly. You have to keep them in a perfect charge state or they will fail prematurely. That's been my experience anyhow. Lead Acid is proven technology and it's much more forgiving. A Lithium battery can fail due to under or over-charging. A Lead Acid battery will laugh it off.

Any battery you buy as a replacement will have a built-in Battery Management System (BMS) that will take care of all the internal cells. It will make sure they are balanced, and convert your 12v system to the internal power required by the Lithium cells. They are mostly plug and play. However, that BMS is more junk to go wrong. It adds a whole new layer of complexity.

Unless you need the weight savings or you just want to try something new for the giggles, stick with lead acid.

To be clear, I'm not an old fogey ****-bent against new technology. But for a standard bike that's already quite heavy, there really is no upside for Lithium.

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Taurus

Discussion Starter · #7 · 8 d ago

Thanks for the advice. In every other application I've swapped over to lithium and been very pleased with their performance and durability.

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Halo_2

· #8 · 8 d ago

I bought them when they first came out.

I had a shorai battery and the special shorai charger only lasted a year before shitting itself.

I’ll stay with lead acid thanks.

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Stumac

· #9 · 8 d ago

lithium battery straight in - no problem at all. Used all the spare space to locate the fuse boxes so the Viba lid sat properly. Had one on my custom air cooled bonnie too- again no problem but did have to buy a special regulator for that one. 5 yrs on still going strong

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Stumac

· #10 · 7 d ago

the antigravity (1201, could be 801) has double the CAA and also slightly more amps than stock - did put the numbers somewhere on a post already

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