• Hi everyone,

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Lightweight Shorai Battery

vintageveloce

vintageveloce

Husqvarna
AA Class
I wanted a new battery for my 2010 Husqvarna TE250, and had recently read about these cool lightweight lithium batteries made by Shorai. I'm a novice in the dirt and I'm short so the idea of lightening the bike a couple pounds sounded like a good idea.

Shorai's "Standard Recommendation" for my bike is the LFX09L2-BS12. There website claims: "This LFX battery is 4.07 Lbs. lighter than the lead-acid YTZ7S." That sounded pretty awesome, and my local dealer had it in stock.
Here is my original battery and the new Shorai.
​
The new Shorai is significantly shorter and less deep. They provide foam that you can cut to wedge the battery in the battery tray and you can see that in front of the Shorai battery in the picture. They also have these nice bolts with foam underneath that helps raise the nut for fitting the bolt. If you have fit a motorcycle battery before you know this seems like a handy and nice idea.

But what about the weight? First I weighed the original battery.
​
This is the original battery that came with the bike and including the bolts it weights 4 pounds 8.5 ounces (4.53 pounds).

Now the new Shorai battery.
​
Wow! 1 pound 4.9 ounces (1.31 pounds), including the bolts and foam shim.

So that is a savings of: 3 pounds 3.6 ounces, or 3.2 pounds. Not really close to Shorai's claim of 4.07 pounds, but still a pretty good weight savings.

Here's a picture of the battery fitted to the bike.
​

I was careful to zip tie the battery in place, as it definitely cold come loose otherwise, due to it's smaller size. But it does fit really well. (You might notice, I have some extra wiring under my bike for the Power Commander.)

So thats it, probably the easiest 3 pounds I've ever saved on a bike.
Carl
 
A couple points I forgot... I checked the voltage of the battery when I bought it, and it was at 13.40V. Which Shorai claims means the battery as delivered was at more than 90% charge. I also checked the drain with the ignition off and got 0.17mA on my meter. Thats pretty small, but I think I'll leave the battery disconnected between riding trips.
 
Nice- I am intriged with these as well and plan to replace my 09' stock YussaYTZ7s with one of the Shorai's this spring- no issues or symptoms with my Yussa so far though- 3 good years of service while using a tender. 3 lbs of weght savings up top is nice.

You gonna get some kind of charger? can't use ones that have cycles or desulfication I hear- let us know what you find... I assume they are pretty basic which should mean cheap.
 
I'm just going to disconnect it between rides. Supposedly it loses charge very slowly, and thus can go as much as a year disconnected without damage. They have a voltage chart on their web site that you can use to check the battery condition. If necessary, they say you can use a battery tender.
They do sell a special charger, but it's not cheap, and they claim its really unnecessary if you disconnect the battery for long periods without charging. I guess I'll find out!
 
Cost? The Shorai at $106.62, tax included, was about the same price as a replacement Yuasa MF YTZ-7S battery ($110 online from various sites). But you can get an off-brand sealed AGM YTZ-7S for less than $50. So it's a great deal if you compare to a high end OEM replacement battery, kind of expensive if you compare it to the cheapest batteries out there.
 
3 pounds is a significant weight savings and it it up high as well. I will have to go this route when replacement time rolls around.
Good report, thankyou
 
These are powerful batteries ... my riding buddy had an lithium in his bike and he had a voltage regulator problem or something causing the bike to quit charging and the lithium battery just kept running the bike for at least 2 ~long days before he noticed a problem ... But once they quit, they quit fast... not much warning as his bike just stopped running when the voltage dropped a little...
 
I am really impressed with the quality and reliability of these batteries. I've had mine for 4 months and 2000 miles with no problems with the GPS and helmet light hardwired. I am hard on my equipment so if it's a p.o.s., then I'll break it.
 
I have nothing but problems with these Batteries. I am on my third one in a year they have been replacing them under warranty but, they dont seem to hold a charge for more than 2 months. I like the weight savings but the battery is significantly smaller and I dont think it has enough juice to sustain. I recently bought there charger to go with the last battery they sent me and I am trying to use the store more in between rides, we wil see what happens. I frequently have to use the kick stater during rides. Any help would be appreciated I prob have a smal key off drain but the stock battery never gave any problems
 
I had 2 different Shorai's & both did the same thing. Both were under warranty. The cases of the battery would swell, it looked dangerous. I had never charged the batteries either. I swapped to a TurnTech with no problems in 2 years now. Unfortunately TurnTech is closed for business.
 
I've been running the Shorai 210 cold cranking amps model LFX 14L2-BS12 in my BMW G450X for about 1 year now. I've had nothing but great results, the starter spins the engine like never before. I was running the same Yuasa YTZ-7S and although it was and is still good. It would never crank over the engine like the Shorai does. I have seldom even bothered to hook it up to one of the 4 battery tenders in my shop and it has sat for as long as 6 months hooked to nothing once while I had a shoulder healing after surgery.

I have a Battery Tender pigtail charging plug installed and it hasn't ever needed to be charged. Even after sitting for 6 months. It still spun the 13 to 1 Comp. ratio TC 449 engine in my BMW chassis up like it was a sewing machine and the engine is fresh with less than 40 hours. I have never heard of the Shorai's going bad.

You may check into seeing if you have a drain on the bikes battery if its going dead. There shouldn't be any reason to have to disconnect the battery during storage. Something has to be wrong with the electrical system on the bike. If the battery stays charged while disconnected, That should tell you something. Hell they ship them nearly fully charged at 90% or so and you have to know they have been sitting on the shelf somewhere before they do that. If it drains itself just connected to the bike there's got to be something the matter with the bike itself.
 
Big Timmy said:
I've been running the Shorai 210 cold cranking amps model LFX 14L2-BS12 in my BMW G450X for about 1 year now. I've had nothing but great results, the starter spins the engine like never before. I was running the same Yuasa YTZ-7S and although it was and is still good. It would never crank over the engine like the Shorai does. I have seldom even bothered to hook it up to one of the 4 battery tenders in my shop and it has sat for as long as 6 months hooked to nothing once while I had a shoulder healing after surgery.

I have a Battery Tender pigtail charging plug installed and it hasn't ever needed to be charged. Even after sitting for 6 months. It still spun the 13 to 1 Comp. ratio TC 449 engine in my BMW chassis up like it was a sewing machine and the engine is fresh with less than 40 hours. I have never heard of the Shorai's going bad.

You may check into seeing if you have a drain on the bikes battery if its going dead. There shouldn't be any reason to have to disconnect the battery during storage. Something has to be wrong with the electrical system on the bike. If the battery stays charged while disconnected, That should tell you something. Hell they ship them nearly fully charged at 90% or so and you have to know they have been sitting on the shelf somewhere before they do that. If it drains itself just connected to the bike there's got to be something the matter with the bike itself.
Click to expand...

When I called shorai They told me that the bikes with digital odometers can be enough to drain them over time.
 
Shorai's last about a year before they die or lack sufficient sustained starter current. You can greatly improve this lifetime by purchasing Shorai's load balancing charger.
We use the Earthx battery which has a much greater lifetime than all other lithium iron batteries. Their downside is initial cost, but when you compare the two, you will see that the Earthx has all of the advantages of the Shorai without all of the negatives. And Earthx's warranty is free battery replacement, not a 50% buy back like the Shorai.
http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/ziptyracing-earthx-battery.40906/
http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/earthx-install-and-review.40135/#post-442438
 
Just telling my personal experience with the Shorai that I have and commenting on the guys battery being drained when hooked up and what may be the cause?

How did I know that was coming ?

With a link to purchase the EarthX as well.

Thanks
 
I had a Shorai lithium ion battery in my Aprilia Dorsoduro V-Twin 1200 for just over a year. I bought the Shorai battery charger at the same time. Was thrilled to shave those several lbs way high up from my bike. When I would garage my bike (every day) I would connect the Shorai charger to the lithium battery in the bike. The battery was fine month after month......as long as I DID NOT use the high beam headlight for more than just flashing it. If I used the high beam full time...... 2 to 2 1/2 hour fuel tank fuel range.....the battery NEVER once was able to crank the engine after ANY stop. Fortunately, the first time I did that it was just for a fuel stop, the engine was still at operating temperature and it would fairly easily bump start. I could then ride the bike for the next 2 hours or so, without the headlight high beam, and the battery WOULD NOT AND NEVER DID charge from the bikes electric system. Went thru 2 Shorai Lithium batteries on warranty with same results. (They DO honor their warranty) but had enough of you can't operate with the high beam on and then hope to re-start the engine should you shut it down; and went back to a standard heavy, but reliable battery.

Again, I emphasize, the lithium ion battery was kept constantly on the special Shorai LI battery charger/ maintainer when parked in my garage each night.
 
I have a big Shorai on my rarely used 610 that is never on a charger.

It just sits for months and starts fine when I need it.

Battery is 2yrs old.
 
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