Another Battery Question | GTAMotorcycle.com

Another Battery Question

M

Merkid

Well-known member
Looks like my Suzuki Bandit battery is done. It is a Chinese brand that came with the bike 2 yrs ago and the previous owner told me it was a year old. I trickle charged it all winter and even now so when it recently gave up, I was surprised there was no warning.

A number of manufacturer suppliers from Fortnine are as follows:

- Yuasa
- Parts Unlimited (Chinese maybe ?)
- Bike Master " "
- BS Battery (no joke, this is the real name)
- Kimpex

The AGM variety do cost more but I am looking at more of a mid-way cost for a maintenance free version.

Can anyone recommend one of the above brands?

thanks
 
Same situation here. I need to do some more testing to make sure it's the battery today.

I heard it's best to keep the same manufacturer the bike came with.

But willing to try generic one from batteryclerk

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Yuasa is the standard big-name brand.

Trickle-charging all winter ... from what I've seen ... causes more trouble than leaving the bike (and battery) alone for the winter ... maybe giving it the occasional top-up charge every couple of months.
 
Depending on the intelligence of the charger; leaving a trickle charger on the battery all winter may do the battery in.... Esp. if it's a larger charger (motorcycle/power-sports battery tenders should usually be in the 500-750 ma range; car tenders may be as much as 7A)

Yuasa is a big name - I'm more familiar with their industrial/reserve stuff (which is now part of EnerSys) - but they are well regarded across the board.

That said - if you're looking at traditional lead acid or AGM/gel - they're all pretty similar; there's only so many ways to mix the 'special sauce' - go middle of the road, avoid the cheapest; no need for the most expensive 'name brand' - there's only a handful of factories that actually make the batteries anyways; and they just white-label them for other companies...

For lithium, that's a whole different deal - the quality of the BMS is critical to longevity of the battery back.
 
Brian P said:
Yuasa is the standard big-name brand.

Trickle-charging all winter ... from what I've seen ... causes more trouble than leaving the bike (and battery) alone for the winter ... maybe giving it the occasional top-up charge every couple of months.
Click to expand...
In my case, I trickle charge for a couple days, disconnect, then repeat monthly.

I guess it's just time. The bike is 2012 and looks like it's stock (yt12a-bs from FM)

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I’ve always used yuasa. I figure for the price difference on an item that should last 5 yrs or more it’s worthwhile


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Other possible options:

Canadian Tire has a range of Eliminator branded motorcycle batteries - they come in two versions for most sizes, dry shipped and factory filled.
Princess Auto has a range of Canadian Energy batteries

If I had to say who was the best, it would still probably be Yuasa. But lead-acid battery technology is not super complicated - I would expect that most options are good enough, except for the ones that are *suspiciously* cheap.
 
TwistedKestrel said:
Other possible options:

Canadian Tire has a range of Eliminator branded motorcycle batteries - they come in two versions for most sizes, dry shipped and factory filled.
Princess Auto has a range of Canadian Energy batteries

If I had to say who was the best, it would still probably be Yuasa. But lead-acid battery technology is not super complicated - I would expect that most options are good enough, except for the ones that are *suspiciously* cheap.
Click to expand...
The only batteries I have had consistent fail are the Canadian tire ones I find them expensive and junk. Never had one last more than one season, usually less.

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I'll find out I guess! I ended up buying one out of frustration, It was a dry shipped AGM. I actually bought a factory filled one first, but the weirdly shaped battery terminals would not mate nicely with the leads on my TL1000S.
 
Scuba Steve said:
The only batteries I have had consistent fail are the Canadian tire ones I find them expensive and junk. Never had one last more than one season, usually less.

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Click to expand...

Canadian Tire batteries are made by East Penn, currently... Pretty well regarded and generally high quality.

I'm surprised you're having a hard time with them. Only thing I can think of is old stock, that's not been properly floated and rotated.
 
Hey guys, quick question - I pulled my battery out and it reads 12.65 when I checked with a multimeter. Is the battery done? I have heard that it should read 13v or above.

The battery in question is a Yuasa, which came with the bike. The owner actually installed it when I went to check the bike. Not sure if he bought it new or was picked up from somewhere.
 
voyageur said:
Hey guys, quick question - I pulled my battery out and it reads 12.65 when I checked with a multimeter. Is the battery done? I have heard that it should read 13v or above.

The battery in question is a Yuasa, which came with the bike. The owner actually installed it when I went to check the bike. Not sure if he bought it new or was picked up from somewhere.
Click to expand...

13+ would be while the engine is running


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