Lithium Batteries

[GoldOxide_imp]

My Honda comes standard with a LiFePO4 and they are indeed lighter, smaller, and somewhat more expensive for the "brand name" ones. They have very long shelf life and do not need trickle charging over winter provided that your bike has no parasitic electrical loads when ignition is off.

So far no problems, but it is still early days for the battery. Static voltage tends to be in the range of 13.5 to 14.0 V. They require a lithium battery charger.

One thing to note: If you ride in cold weather (e.g. freezing or lower), consider at first stone cold start-up to leave the ignition on, but don't crank the starter motor until maybe at least 30 to 60 seconds have passed. The current draw from the headlight will pre-warm the lithium battery internals and help improve cold weather start-up behaviour.