bigmo
Husqvarna
AA Class
I finally decided to listen to the advice here by our resident experts and went with an EarthX. I have not been overwhelmed by the small battery in my new TE 449. I HAD (past tense) suffered from flameout induced compression locks that the starter could not break free. A few tweaks here and there and those are gone, but the stock battery (a quality Yuasa) is simply too small for this bike.
I looked at all of the options and in the end went with the EarthX as several folks I have grown to trust (here on Cafe) have spoken very highly of the EarthX. The onboard charging management was the deal maker for me as it did not require any uber-expensive chargers.
Overall, I can say I am VERY pleased with the battery. Install took about 20 mins and looks factory. I added a simple 1.2 amp automatic charger that reportedly pairs up well with the EarthX. I run a CTEK system on my other bikes (and other things with small batteries). I could not be happier with CTEK chargers, but in order to charge the LIFEPO4, it would require a special CTEK charger as all CTEKs have an automatic desulfate mode (a big no no with LIFEPO4's as desulfate sends a cleansing pulse in excess of 40 volts through the battery).
Bottom line - the battery is very well made, fits well, shipped FAST (thanks Zip Ty!) and at $152 to my door, is very well priced amongst the competitors. I have zero regrets and at this point can highly recommend the EarthX.
The only downside is that the battery posts (while beefy) have bolts that don't fit the power and ground leads of the Husky. To save time, a 15/64" drill bit cleaned those up - total effort about 45 secs. In all honesty I like the big bolts (significantly bigger than stock cycle battery posts) but some people may not have a drill or a good assortment of bits.
Once I had the charging pigtail installed, I fired up the 449 and it lit to life almost immediately. There is no doubt that it spins the motor over significantly faster - maybe in the neighborhood of 30-40% faster. This is a cold battery, in a cold garage on it's first crank. If this thing gets better with warmth, it is going to spin the crank out of the bike!
Our riding season is just around the corner (can I get an amen!). As soon as I get some woods time on the EarthX I will update the thread. Until now, the weak battery was the ONLY issue with my 449 - I just eliminated it and dropped 3 1/2 pounds at the same time.
3 1/2 pound!
Ok, lets get to some pics!
First, here is the old battery mounted - nothing exciting here:
This battery has been off the CTEK for exactly a month. The CTEK onboard (on the bike) power indicator switched from yellow to red 3-4 days ago so it was time to get charged. In any event, this battery was fully maintained about 25 days ago. Here is the voltage today (at 37 degrees in my garage):
Here is the REAL info I wanted to see - what does this sucker weight? 4 pounds, 13 1/2 ounces. Not terrible, but that is quite a bit of weight so high. Consider gas weighs right at 6 pounds for a gallon - that is darn near a gallon of gas in weight...
Ok, lets get down to business before my wife sees me using her fitness scale for moto business...
Drum-roll please... 1 pound, 5 ounces. Saving is 3 and 1/2 pounds on the dot!
I needed to shim the battery to fit the box tightly. The self adhesive shims are a perfect fit. One long on the bottom and two shorts on the side yields a snug fit. I like that the battery is isolated from any vibrations of the bike.
Here we are all ready to go! Multimeter shot here (bike off).
My new automatic charger that is reported to work great with the EarthX - less than $15 on Amazon and is made really well. Footprint about the same as my CTEK.
I looked at all of the options and in the end went with the EarthX as several folks I have grown to trust (here on Cafe) have spoken very highly of the EarthX. The onboard charging management was the deal maker for me as it did not require any uber-expensive chargers.
Overall, I can say I am VERY pleased with the battery. Install took about 20 mins and looks factory. I added a simple 1.2 amp automatic charger that reportedly pairs up well with the EarthX. I run a CTEK system on my other bikes (and other things with small batteries). I could not be happier with CTEK chargers, but in order to charge the LIFEPO4, it would require a special CTEK charger as all CTEKs have an automatic desulfate mode (a big no no with LIFEPO4's as desulfate sends a cleansing pulse in excess of 40 volts through the battery).
Bottom line - the battery is very well made, fits well, shipped FAST (thanks Zip Ty!) and at $152 to my door, is very well priced amongst the competitors. I have zero regrets and at this point can highly recommend the EarthX.
The only downside is that the battery posts (while beefy) have bolts that don't fit the power and ground leads of the Husky. To save time, a 15/64" drill bit cleaned those up - total effort about 45 secs. In all honesty I like the big bolts (significantly bigger than stock cycle battery posts) but some people may not have a drill or a good assortment of bits.
Once I had the charging pigtail installed, I fired up the 449 and it lit to life almost immediately. There is no doubt that it spins the motor over significantly faster - maybe in the neighborhood of 30-40% faster. This is a cold battery, in a cold garage on it's first crank. If this thing gets better with warmth, it is going to spin the crank out of the bike!
Our riding season is just around the corner (can I get an amen!). As soon as I get some woods time on the EarthX I will update the thread. Until now, the weak battery was the ONLY issue with my 449 - I just eliminated it and dropped 3 1/2 pounds at the same time.
3 1/2 pound!
Ok, lets get to some pics!
First, here is the old battery mounted - nothing exciting here:
This battery has been off the CTEK for exactly a month. The CTEK onboard (on the bike) power indicator switched from yellow to red 3-4 days ago so it was time to get charged. In any event, this battery was fully maintained about 25 days ago. Here is the voltage today (at 37 degrees in my garage):
Here is the REAL info I wanted to see - what does this sucker weight? 4 pounds, 13 1/2 ounces. Not terrible, but that is quite a bit of weight so high. Consider gas weighs right at 6 pounds for a gallon - that is darn near a gallon of gas in weight...
Ok, lets get down to business before my wife sees me using her fitness scale for moto business...
Drum-roll please... 1 pound, 5 ounces. Saving is 3 and 1/2 pounds on the dot!
I needed to shim the battery to fit the box tightly. The self adhesive shims are a perfect fit. One long on the bottom and two shorts on the side yields a snug fit. I like that the battery is isolated from any vibrations of the bike.
Here we are all ready to go! Multimeter shot here (bike off).
My new automatic charger that is reported to work great with the EarthX - less than $15 on Amazon and is made really well. Footprint about the same as my CTEK.
