Lithium Ion batteries...

[Heath]

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.

[1.21GW]

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 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).

[Mastercraft]

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.

[metroplex]

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

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...