The New And Improved Unofficial R65 Forum V2
Technical Discussion => BMW Technical Q&A, Primarily R65 => Topic started by: Bob_Roller on May 11, 2012, 10:21:02 AM
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Went to order one of these batteries for the '82 LS, I'll pick it up at 'Will Call' on Monday morning .
A price I don't think you can beat anywhere, let alone an AGM type battery !!!
http://www.gruberpower.com/12-volt-18-amp-hour-ah-battery
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That's an incredible price Bob. I wonder if they would ship to the UK
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Twentytwo bucks for a battery!!! That's unheard of! I should get a couple spares at that price!
It must be a mistake!
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I just ordered one, I checked on shipping costs, it's a 75 mile round trip drive to pick it up myself, they charged $10US for shipping, wasn't worth my time (2 hours) and effort to get it myself .
Should be at my front door Monday morning .
Total charges, including shipping and local sales tax, was $36US .
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The local bike wreckers got in a range of Motobatt AGM batteries to try just before XMAS, and my battery died a couple of weeks ago, so i bought one at AUD$125.
Best thing I did. I was havin gtrouble with a bit of water in the tank so the bike was a bitch to start, and the last battery (Yuasa wet cell) would crank for about 30 seconds only, this thing kept cranking the battery for ages. Then today when i was fault finding and i had turned the key to ON so the headlight was burning bright for hours, this battery still cranked strong and started the bike very quickly.
I'm sold that my money was well spent in buying an AGM battery.
Now to judge the life of one, here in the tropics with the higher ambient temperature we only get 12-18 months out of a wet cell battery.
John
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I just had a look at your link and the USD$25.
I think I'm gonna cry, :'( there is no way anyone would be seeling an AGM that cheap here in OZ, unless it was hot.
John
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That's the unknown, how long will it last in this incessant desert heat .
Storage battery service life is greatly reduced in high temps and the average temp here is around 105 F. (41 C.) for 5-6 months .
Temperature is forcast to be 105-107 F. (41-42 C.) today, but it is a 'dry heat' . ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
I really do think the key to maximum battery life, is to keep a battery 'tender' or maintainer connected to it, whenever the bike is parked for the day .
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this thing kept cranking the battery for ages.
Take care not to over work your starter motor!
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They must have made a mistake on the pricing, the price is now $32.89US .
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Still a helluva deal - but not as good as $22!
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Interesting development with my battery order, it was supposed to be delivered on Monday, well it's Wednesday evening and no battery has been delivered .
I checked my credit card activity online when I got home today, no charges have showed up yet for the battery .
I called the company about an hour ago and I was told they have no record of me placing an order with them !!!!!!!!!!!!!
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So did anyone get one of these? Any reason I should not order one?
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I did receive it, but I was charged the higher price, I copied the page when I ordered it .
I disputed the charge and sent a copy with the paperwork that the card issuer sent to dispute the charge, so I won't pay the increased price, not that it was something that would 'break' me, just the principle . ;)
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So no complaints as far as the actual battery goes right? Even at 33$ instead of 22$, seems like a very low price.
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I installed the battery Sunday in the '82 LS, fits and works fine .
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great. I just placed an order.
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I just ordered one too!
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so I bought one of these, received it two weeks ago, charged it, and then installed it and it worked just fine. I'm in nyc so a lot of the riding I do is very stop and go ie won't charge the battery.
It's very inconvenient for me to put the battery on a tender since the bike lives on the street. On friday I rode home from uptown manhattan and hit A LOT of traffic so it was lot of sitting and idling and 5 mph cutting lanes. Saturday morning I rode to a cafe 2 miles aay and it started fine, then riding home I could tell the battery was a little low but it still started. I let a friend ride the bike, he stalled, and when trying to restart it wouldn't turn over the battery was too dead. I couldn't even get it to bump start, and the indicator lights weren't lighting I guess because the battery was so dead. After letting it sit about 10 minutes I tried again and the indicator lights came on and then we were able to bump start and I got home. I charged the battery with it in the bike and let it charge several hours. It charged up to 62% pretty quickly (read out on the charger) but then never went above that. The bike started right up after charging.
Does this seem like an issue? Did I damage the battery by draining it? Or am I overthinking things? I'm going to be going on a 3 hour away ride this weekend and don't want to get stranded anywhere.
thanks,
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You need to fully charge the battery after the discharge 'event' you had .
Probably more like 12-15 hours, the AGM batteries can take a pretty high charge rate initially .
I just did a pretty good discharge on my battery Sunday, when my (suspect) rotor failed .
Had it on a regular auto battery charger for 7 hours, the initial charge rate was 7 amps after 2 hours went to 2-3 amps .
Finished the charging with the battery tender about 14 hours total charging time .
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I charged the battery with it in the bike and let it charge several hours
Sounds like the battery was really flat. It's an 18 AH battery so you need to put 18AH back in plus at least 10% in which case it will need approx. 10 hours at 2 amps to reach full charge. That could easily be more than your several hours charge and 3 hours riding. You have to be sure it's fully charged at the start and it won't have been when you bought it. Ideally should have been given a charge before installation.
A full discharge won't have done it any good but as long as it's not fully discharged too often it should still last for some time yet.
Do you know what your charging system is putting out above 3000 rpm ? Anything less than 14 volts is going to be an issue with stop go riding. I'd be thinking about a high set point voltage regulator. A regulator set at 14.4 volts would certainly help. Check out the battery manufacturers specifications to see what the ideal charge voltage is.
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About 5 discharge events like you had, will start to lessen the service life of the battery noticeably .
Motorcycle batteries don't seem to be able to take a lot of abuse, no matter what type you have .