I am very happy with the shorai on my 916. It don't seem to like starting when its colder then 68deg though. It has trouble getting the 12.5:1 pistons over top dead center on the first revolution. But after 1 or 2 tries it fires right up. When cold, once or twice I did hook it to the shorai charger for a couple min's and that seemed to give it the extra oomph it needed. 99% of the time it works grate so far. I have been using the 2.2lb one since the end of last season. 3500-4000mi
-never charged it yet - only on the charger a couple times for 5 min when cold.
I love it, truthfully if it needed to be replaced every season, I would do it without hesitation just for the 10lb weight loss.
Sounds weird but Li batteries actually have to heat up when it's cold... they will actually start cranking better the more you crank them. They're the opposite of a normal battery. Odd I know...
Just an update on Ballistic batteries now that these have become so common and quite a few of them have been sold I can firmly say they are shit, not THE SHIT, just shit.
I've got one still working just fine in one of my track bikes, but I've got several customers that have had them fail now and one of the warranty replacements we received arrived with a cracked casing and it still didn't work...
If you want a quality lightweight battery spend the extra money and buy a Speed-Cell brand.
I've seen a lot of negative feedback on them failing. The MOTY I bought is still going strong. I tried a new brand, Alien Motion, after some encouraging feedback and it's doing well also. I've only had it for a few months and 4-5k miles though.
__________________ Superbike Unlimited - Carbon Fiber, Race Glass and Ohlins Suspension Products 2011 R1 - Ohlins TTX MKII, Forks with Ohlins 30mm kit, Flashed ECU, Bazzaz ZFi-TC+AFM, 3/4 system with LBP Ti GP cans, 15/45 520 gearing, Lacomoto Carbon Fiber/Race Glass, Renthal Clip Ons, 8 Cell Battery, Spiegler Brake Lines, Vesrah RJL pads, Vortex Rearsets, 55w HID, etc, etc.
I picked up a alien battery from a vendor on rc51 forums. I have been using it for almost a month and so far it works very well. Seems to start the bike easier than the battery I had in there before. Cost me 130.00 shipped and came with the battery balancer. It is very light compared to a standard battery which is one of tha reasons I bought it. Good chance to save quite a bit of weight and it cost right around the same as a standard. I live in arizona (the weather is very hard on batteries) so we will see how it holds up
I've had a Shorai for about a year now. Even with the reservations about the smaller battery turning over the RC, I picked up the 14Ah one since it is super tiny and space was a concern. I haven't had a single issue with the thing, and it turns the RC over much better than the full size Yuasa.
I've had it swapped back and forth between the RC and my 250, drained to near dead while working on things, and brought back to life with a battery tender (yes, you can use a battery tender with the Shorai, just as long as it doesn't have a desulfation mode). Once I get another battery, I'll pick up the Shorai charger as it does balance the cells, which will make the battery last longer.
I honestly don't see any shortcomings with the Shorai unit. I was originally going to get one of the a123 round cell style batteries, or make my own. The problem is that the cells jumped in price, and the home built ones that many different companies sell just aren't as cheap as they used to be. Neither is making your own. The Shorai is also superior to the other batteries in safety features, and actually looks like a regular battery. I still have yet to hear of a single fire or explosion with a Shorai other than one guy with a superhawk and a bad RR that fried the battery. Shorai fixed his bike and gave him some money on top of everything even though it wasn't their fault. Do a search for any other brand and you'll find problems. There is no way in hell I would buy a Ballistic (too many failures), and no way I would buy a Full spectrum as the owner is a piece of trash.
One note with the cold starting issues: You don't have to sit there and crank it over multiple times to warm up the battery. Just leave the lights on for a few minutes and it will get the current flowing and the battery warmed up.
Linear Mode
