Ducati Monster Forum

Anyone have any experience with them? Battery was dead on the multi this morning. Pretty shitty for a less than year old battery.  [thumbsdown]

i think you mean lithium iron phosphate battery.  LiFePO4

that said, i dont have one.  i use a regular sealed battery and its gone 4 years with a battery tender during the off-seasons

Just read a super write up on making these yourself for considerably less $. A123 cells are what you want. All over eBay. Think I will make one over the winter cuz my Odyssey is a friggin boulder.

A123 cells are teh awesome.

I've been using an A123 lifepo4 battery for  around eighteen months, and it's worked like a charm. Highly recommended.

I have had the Shorai for about the same length of time as Suzy, 18 months and love it.
Incredible weight saving and works great.

A123 went Chapter 11 last month, I don't know if they are still manufacturing or not

im sure ebay is still producing plenty of fakes tho!!   :P

it is sad that they have filed for bankruptcy... its a little hard to understand in what i assumed was such an emerging market. sounds like they will be brought out by another usa company now so they shouldnt stop production.

Great info. Thanks people.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__6444__GENUINE_A123_Systems_26650A_LiFePo4_Cell_w_tabs.html (http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__6444__GENUINE_A123_Systems_26650A_LiFePo4_Cell_w_tabs.html)

Good price.

+3 (I now have Shorai in all my bikes + 1 of their chargers for maintenance)   [Dolph]

+4.
In both my bikes and I recommend them to customers. When I service a customers bike I balance charge and test the battery as part of the service with tne Shorai diag/charger. The distributor is very helpful and backs the warranty.
Some of the board sponsors sell them, so you know you have local support.

are maintenance chargers needed for these LiFePO4 batteries?  isn't that one of the benefits?  lighter weight and no need to trickle charge constantly?

also, are people using 4-cell batteries or 8-cell?

I was just wondering about these a while ago, and one question I still have is: If these are so great, why don't manufacurers use them OEM? I mean if you look at all the trouble they go through to make a bike lighter, would'nt a LiFePO4 battery be a no-brainer?

I've owned a Shorai since june 2011. Still starts up fine. never charged it or done anything to it yet. it just runs. If it lasts me 3 years - 4 years I'll be happy. Halfway there already.

I've had a Shorai in my 695 since May this year. Haven't had any issues yet.

I have had my Shorai since April 2011.  It cranks as hard as it did on day one.  It has never been on any sort of charger.

I thought the same thing and figured it's a mixture of cost (Shorais are something like $150+ vs conventional lead acid of ~$80) and not wanting to invest in the minor design/production changes that would be required for current product line.  That said, I think it's only a matter of time before these things are standard in most production bikes because, as you said, the weight loss is pretty amazing (something like 9 lbs vs 2 lbs according to here (http://www.monsterparts.com/pc/LFX14A1-BS12/Electrical/LFX14A1-BS12.html)).

I'm sold on the Shorai batteries also.  The weight is just crazy my weighs 1 lb. 14.5 oz.  My stock battery weighed 8 lb. 14.5 oz.  I'm pretty sure most people are using the 8 cell Shorai, that's what my 696 calls for.  I've seen in some other threads people talking about using the 12 cell one when using some extra accessories. 

I've only had mine for a few weeks.  I'll may get one for my dirt bike when I need a new battery.

I can understand the confusion in 2012, but I kept coming across people correcting others on Lithium Iron while doing research on Lithium batteries for motorcycles, so I wanted to point out that LiFP (which is LiFePO4 or Lithium Iron Phosphate) is indeed a Lithium Ion battery. Tesla's are now using LiFP prismatic batteries in their lower end models. The Nickel and Cobalt based batteries are used on the more expensive models with higher range etc...