Loving the new Li-Ion Battery

[1.21GW]

Use the foam padding that came with the battery to take up the extra space?

The elastic band in the S4RS hold the smaller battery very well without the need to use the included foam.

I like both of these ideas because they're cheap! 

[danaid]

   I've had a replacement sitting in my closet for over a year. I had the first generation shorai in my 696 and had some issues with it. I agree that they stand behind their warranty. Shorai replaced the battery with it being over two years old with a larger upgrade replacement.

[pchoiboi]

installed it today on my M695

had to wiggle it a bit to fit inside the given battery housing and cut a bit of rubber to make space for the terminals
happy to see my bike turn over without hesitation 

[CDawg]

Final update:  My voltage regulator was busted and was overcharging the battery causing the earlier failure.

[stonemaster]

so u had no issues with cold I had another brand that did, while I love the lighter weight the starting issues in cold weather made it impractical, I think trying a Shorai sounds interesting

[JoeP]

I think trying a Shorai sounds interesting

Also has issues when cold. I keep mine in the house during winter and only install when I'm going for a ride.

[Rudemouthsky]

I seem to remember there being a fairly simple work around for this problem...I'll look around for it.

[IdZer0]

Final update:  My voltage regulator was busted and was overcharging the battery causing the earlier failure.

How could you tell it was overcharging? Was it above a certain voltage level?

[stopintime]

I seem to remember there being a fairly simple work around for this problem...I'll look around for it.

If I'm not mistaken (no personal experience) - turn the ignition on for a minute - the draw for the lights makes it happier.

[silas]

?'s:
Do you have to buy a special $50 charger for the lithium Shorai batteries? 
Or would my Battery Tender Jr work on it for the wintertime? .
My bike gets parked a week or so at a time in winter usually.

I have a great Odyssey battery w/ a 5 yr warranty. It's too tall for my bike- + super heavy-  & shorts on the bottom of my gas tank if not covered w/ inner tubes. I think that is what helped blow my second regulator/ rectifier. It's hard to justify getting a Shorai just yet as the Odyssey still has 3 yrs of life left, starting to "circle in" though.

Will I notice 10 lbs missing from the battery while hustling on a real tight road- RE-quicker direction changes?  (98 M900)

How long should I expect a Shorai lithium battery to last?
Give me more reasons to buy... 

[Howie]

If I'm not mistaken (no personal experience) - turn the ignition on for a minute - the draw for the lights makes it happier.

Ding Ding!

[Howie]

?'s:
Do you have to buy a special $50 charger for the lithium Shorai batteries? 
Or would my Battery Tender Jr work on it for the wintertime? .
My bike gets parked a week or so at a time in winter usually.

I have a great Odyssey battery w/ a 5 yr warranty. It's too tall for my bike- + super heavy-  & shorts on the bottom of my gas tank if not covered w/ inner tubes. I think that is what helped blow my second regulator/ rectifier. It's hard to justify getting a Shorai just yet as the Odyssey still has 3 yrs of life left, starting to "circle in" though.

Will I notice 10 lbs missing from the battery while hustling on a real tight road- RE-quicker direction changes?  (98 M900)

How long should I expect a Shorai lithium battery to last?
Give me more reasons to buy... 

With no circuitry to balance the charge either in the charger or in the battery the battery will not fully charge, but probably will charge more than enough to start the bike if the battery is of sufficient size.  Here is another alternative to the Shorai with built in circuitry  http://batterytender.com/products/batteries/lithium-iron-phosphate-battery-lifepo4-la-eq-10-14.html

Keep a battery that physically doesn't fit and might short out and cause serious damage to your bike, maybe even fire because there is three years of (actually pretty weak  http://www.odysseybatteries.com/mainpages/documentation.htm) warranty?  Find a new proper home for it.

Though I do think these batteries are a good thing for a daily rider I will stick with my AGM just my opinion.

[oldndumb]

Just a brief note regarding balance charging of Shorai batteries. After buying a charge patch cord from Shorai, I noted that the connector has 2 more pins than normally required for LiFe balance charging. The usual convention is one more pin than the number of cells. The Shorai has 4 cells and therefore would use a 5 pin connector. It actually has 7. The significance of this became apparent when I tried to use an RC battery charger. It is a computer controlled charger with programs for just about any type of battery. In the LiFe balance mode it threw a connection error when trying to use the Shorai patch cord.

In the normal LiFe charge mode, connecting directly to the batt posts, the charger performed as expected by taking it to 14.1VDC. Over the course of a few weeks, my seat of the pants evaluator detected that the battery is not maintaining capacity as it did a few years ago. This leads me to suspect that one or more of the cells is out of balance and causing the charger to shut off prematurely.

Options for me at this point are to continue to throw the charger on it every few weeks, something that was not needed for several years, or to buy the Shorai charger which will accommodate the 7 pin connector, or to change batt brands for one with self contained balance circuitry. Probably the most logical is to buy the Shorai charger and see if balancing the cells will be beneficial, but the procrastinator in me will most likely put that off and just throw the charger on it every few weeks. Or, I could just get off my butt and use a VOM and figure out that 7 pin connector and then measure each cell to determine any balance variations.

BTW, the batt is getting close to five years old.

[CDawg]

How could you tell it was overcharging? Was it above a certain voltage level?

Volt meter was reading 15+ volts when the engine is revved up.

[bagodoosh]

i've had a shorai LFX14A1 for a couple years with zero issues. back then shorai recommended the 14 model for all monsters. a while after my purchase they changed their recommendation to the LFX18A1. i contacted them recently about an upgrade and was able to do so. i was very satisfied with the customer service.

i've also bought an imax b6 charger/balancer, 4S JST-XH cables (ebay) and "ab clips" (from epbuddy) for protection + easy plug and unplug.

although i've found that there's not much of a need to use the balancer during riding season because the cells balance quite nicely with the voltage that my bike puts out (14.6). i loosely recall a post elsewhere regarding unbalancing issues (on a bmw bike?) because the regulator put out low 13.x volts. (shorai says 13.6V-14.4V at ~2000rpm and no more than 15.2V)


the b6 (as well as other charger brands such as turnigy a6) also has a "storage" mode. apparently it's better to reduce the charge stress in lithium batteries for long term storage. from my understanding this reduces oxidization and prolongs the battery life. the b6 reduces each cell charge to 3.3V (13.2V total) in the store mode. shorai's device does 3.325 (13.3V total).

o&d,
regarding the connection error: are you connecting to the 5pin port AND the battery terminals? the way those chargers work is that they put the charging current thru the red/black terminals that should be connected to the main battery terminals, and simultaneously balance by putting a load on each individual cell thru the 5pin connector. my other guess is that when you choose a 4S battery on the charger it will try connecting thru the 4S port rather than the 6S which is probably where you have the shorai 7pin connector plugged into; then i'd recommend buying a male-male 4S JST-XH wire, or buying two (male-female) and splicing them together (this is what i did), or just buy the male plugs and make them yourself with 22 or 24 awg wire.