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Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



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  #1  
Old 5 Mar 2020
Grant Johnson's Avatar
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Well there you go - I'd never heard of Motobatt - and they look good!
AGM I assume? Or did you do one of their Lithium batteries?

thanks for reporting back!
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Old 5 Mar 2020
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Join Date: Apr 2005
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Well I hope the OP and his Motobatt live happily ever after. Years ago the bike battery world used to be a fairly simple place to navigate - avoid anything made by Lucas or Exide and buy Japanese, which back then used to mean Yuasa. These were all wet cell lead acid tech as that was all there was.

Now though the market has expanded so there's a whole load more choice - wet cell, gel, AGM, and recently lithium in its various forms - ion, iron etc. How you chose between these is beyond me so my fallback position is to choose based on a whole bunch of prejudices built up over time and experience. With batteries it comes down to something like:

1. My bikes are all quite elderly so cutting edge tech such as anything with lithium in the name is out. I seem to vaguely remember that they cost a fortune, need specialised charging both on and off the bike and don't perform well in cold weather so I don't want any of that.

2. Wet cell lead acid is cheap which is good, and a known quantity which is also good but need topping up and can also boil dry, thereby dumping acid all over various bits of the bike. As I currently have two exhaust systems with acid stains on the chrome I'd prefer to avoid that, so not my first choice.

3. AGM and Gel. 'Middle tech' in my mind. Other than a sticker on the side is there any functional difference between them? There probably is but whether it matters I'm not certain. They're all just sealed boxes with a couple of terminals. Sealed is good though as no topping up and, as yet, I've not had any leaks from any battery of this type I've bought. They are more expensive than wet cell though, plus I've had two of them fail instantly - i.e. start the bike fine and be completely dead a mile later. Was that down to just buying cheap as the Odyssey battery seems to soldier on. How much of the difference is down to construction standards. Again Odyssey stands out but the rest of them could just be different 'manufacturers' stickers on the same Chinese internals for all I know.

So how do I choose? Firstly I suppose, find something that actually fits - both physically and with regard to electrical characteristics (cranking amps etc). Then look at cost and juggle that with whatever prejudices I have for or against a particular manufacturer and supply company. Do I perceive them as producing quality or tat or having good / bad after sales? Warranty isn't that much of a factor as within a couple of weeks I've usually lost the receipt. That's where Motobatt falls down for me. I perceive them as producing a poor product. Whether they do or not I don't really know but that's what's in my head. Should I have mentioned that to the OP? I chose not to as I don't have any evidence, just opinion.

So now I've got to practice what I preach as I need to buy batteries for at least two bikes over the next month or so - one here and one in the US. Who are the go-to battery suppliers in the US like Tayna (and others) are here (UK). I've no idea. Any opinion, ill informed or not, welcomed.
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