Battery weak after ride - C Rapide
- Thread starter danno
- Start date
Danno, Signal Dynamics makes a tiny self cancelling turn indicator module that will replace your old flasher unit and also give you the self cancelling feature plus hazard lights. It will work with negligible draw LEDS. Cost is about $75.00.
If you are interested in doing a bit more work and adding a bit more expense, Oberon makes some very slick bar end LED indicators that are extremely bright and can even be fitted with bar end mirrors if desired. The bar end indicators are great because they have fore and aft lenses, are mounted at the widest point of the bike which gives great visibility to other motorists. With lighting tho, the biggest saving of power is to add a pilot light to the headlamp and make it an LED type. I have one of these and it is bright enough to limp home in the dark with, should the mainbeam fail. I think it only draws a couple of watts.
Glen
If you are interested in doing a bit more work and adding a bit more expense, Oberon makes some very slick bar end LED indicators that are extremely bright and can even be fitted with bar end mirrors if desired. The bar end indicators are great because they have fore and aft lenses, are mounted at the widest point of the bike which gives great visibility to other motorists. With lighting tho, the biggest saving of power is to add a pilot light to the headlamp and make it an LED type. I have one of these and it is bright enough to limp home in the dark with, should the mainbeam fail. I think it only draws a couple of watts.
Glen
Excellent selection of specialty low draw bulbs for British bikes at Paul Goff's site. He is also a Vincent owner, is on the forum now and then and is UK based. http://www.norbsa02.freeuk.com/ And here is the self cancelling LED compatible Turn indicator module http://www.ebay.com/itm/SIGNAL-DYNA...ELLING-TURN-SIGNAL-MODULE-01501-/151139504521
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A couple of points you do not know. The bike is fitted with a digital voltmeter, and at the end of that trip was reading 13 volts, that included the starter being used as a propulsion unit, when the bike ran out of fuel on a dual carriageway, and to catch up with the accompanying rider the machine had to be pushed a fair way. The starter made an incline a lot easier.
Secondly, the bike also has another battery,,,,,, just in case.
So, two Shorai`s on the bike, still cheaper than a charging system.
What size is the Shorai and what type of lighting &ignition are you running?
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Hi Trevor
Without knowing the type of ignition and lighting draw, it is impossible to know what you are actually drawing from your Shorai batteries. According to the Shorai site, divide the number in the model size designation by 3 to get actual amphours. The Shorai LFX 18 is then a 6 amphour battery, which in lead acid is also a very tiny battery. It should be noted that this 6 amphour capacity is when fully charged to 14.6 volts. If only charged to 13, volts, the Shorai LFX has just 30%of it's full capacity available, so just two amphours.There is nothing magic about the Li batteries , 6 amphours is 6 amphours, two ah is two ah, same as with a lead acid battery. A two AH lead acid battery would be a very tiny battery, but not many would consider installing a battery with such a tiny storage capacity. It is happening all the time with li batteries tho, because people, self included, get fooled by the big number, such as the 18 in the LFX18.
If you have a magneto ignition and low draw led pilot light, then almost any battery will work deadloss fo quite awhile. I have done this on a couple of trips when my charging system failed, only this was on a bike with high draw dual point dual coil ignition. Even so, a big lead acid battery would run the bike all day deadloss without problem, generally 500- 600 kms.. I found it was an annoyance having to locate a power source and extension cord for the charger at the end of a long day of riding, and even more annoying to forgo running my heated vest in the interest of conserving battery voltage.
The cost of two Shorai batteries and the special Shorai charger will get you most of the way to the purchase of a new Alton. The new version of the Alton is very good. You dont mention how many years you have been using the Shorai batteries in this way. Until it failed permanently at 18 months, I thought my Li battery great and was looking forward to the manufacturer's claimed life, "up to three times that of lead acid" . I typically see 4 years from a cheap lead acid so this meant 12 years of life from the LI battery! When the battery failed at 18 months it no longer was a cost effective purchase.
Using the starter to propel the bike could prove to be rather costly, especially if you cook a couple of $200 batteries. A charging system and one lead acid battery will suddenly seem very economical. Have a look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySNbSZTgplA
It might be that running deadloss and using the Shorai charger is the best way to utilize this type of battery on our old bikes. At least this way you know you have full battery capacity after charging, unlike the situation with a charging system that operates in a lower voltage range than Li batteries do.
Itis interesting that the Shorai site now lists a disclaimer on their batteries. They state that the batteries are only compatible with vehicles having a charging system that produces a minimum of 13.1 volts at idle! This excludes amost all of our older motorcycle charging sysems and most of the new ones made for the Vincent as well. The Walkernator might be the only exception. These are just my thoughts after having a rather negative experience with what I thought was a fabulous new technology. After the problems, when I really dug down for hard numbers, it was easy to see why the battery failed. It is not so much a fabulous new technology as it is a fantastic new marketing strategy.
Glen.
Without knowing the type of ignition and lighting draw, it is impossible to know what you are actually drawing from your Shorai batteries. According to the Shorai site, divide the number in the model size designation by 3 to get actual amphours. The Shorai LFX 18 is then a 6 amphour battery, which in lead acid is also a very tiny battery. It should be noted that this 6 amphour capacity is when fully charged to 14.6 volts. If only charged to 13, volts, the Shorai LFX has just 30%of it's full capacity available, so just two amphours.There is nothing magic about the Li batteries , 6 amphours is 6 amphours, two ah is two ah, same as with a lead acid battery. A two AH lead acid battery would be a very tiny battery, but not many would consider installing a battery with such a tiny storage capacity. It is happening all the time with li batteries tho, because people, self included, get fooled by the big number, such as the 18 in the LFX18.
If you have a magneto ignition and low draw led pilot light, then almost any battery will work deadloss fo quite awhile. I have done this on a couple of trips when my charging system failed, only this was on a bike with high draw dual point dual coil ignition. Even so, a big lead acid battery would run the bike all day deadloss without problem, generally 500- 600 kms.. I found it was an annoyance having to locate a power source and extension cord for the charger at the end of a long day of riding, and even more annoying to forgo running my heated vest in the interest of conserving battery voltage.
The cost of two Shorai batteries and the special Shorai charger will get you most of the way to the purchase of a new Alton. The new version of the Alton is very good. You dont mention how many years you have been using the Shorai batteries in this way. Until it failed permanently at 18 months, I thought my Li battery great and was looking forward to the manufacturer's claimed life, "up to three times that of lead acid" . I typically see 4 years from a cheap lead acid so this meant 12 years of life from the LI battery! When the battery failed at 18 months it no longer was a cost effective purchase.
Using the starter to propel the bike could prove to be rather costly, especially if you cook a couple of $200 batteries. A charging system and one lead acid battery will suddenly seem very economical. Have a look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySNbSZTgplA
It might be that running deadloss and using the Shorai charger is the best way to utilize this type of battery on our old bikes. At least this way you know you have full battery capacity after charging, unlike the situation with a charging system that operates in a lower voltage range than Li batteries do.
Itis interesting that the Shorai site now lists a disclaimer on their batteries. They state that the batteries are only compatible with vehicles having a charging system that produces a minimum of 13.1 volts at idle! This excludes amost all of our older motorcycle charging sysems and most of the new ones made for the Vincent as well. The Walkernator might be the only exception. These are just my thoughts after having a rather negative experience with what I thought was a fabulous new technology. After the problems, when I really dug down for hard numbers, it was easy to see why the battery failed. It is not so much a fabulous new technology as it is a fantastic new marketing strategy.
Glen.
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The 'Walkernator' will balance a 130/90 watt headlamp bulb, 6 watt rear light and coil ignition (about one amp averaged out over contacts open and closed) at the tick over on my twin at 1,000 rpm. That is not a very slow tick over. On Comets, because of various restrictions on pulley sizes due to the differences between twins and singles, it will not balance that load until about 1,500 rpm. On Dick Sherwin’s twin during development it would balance three (count them, three!) 60/55 watt headlights plus the ignition, rear light, heated grips and heated gloves and flashing indicators at about 50 mph in top, 2,300 rpm. There is so much available power that there is no need to go for any 'modern' battery, or LED rear lights. It does not look standard and there are those who think that it looks ugly. However, father and son Appleton made their ‘Walkernators’ look very acceptable by the addition of an outrigger consisting of a Lucas horn chromed bezel and a VOC badge. All that I will say in its defense is that nothing on the original bike is modified and if one wanted to revert to standard appearance at some time in the future it is possible with little effort.
Thanks.
The unit looks like it works with individual left and right switches whereas I have a single all in one switch (up R / middle off/ down L). It resembles the main/dipped beam switch on the right bar and also there's no more room on that side to fit an extra switch due to the brake lever bracket.
I could fit LED replacements in the indicators and then try and find a suitable flasher unit to work them.
If I also fit an LED pilot light for daytime use I think a lead/acid YTX14-BS as usual would be ok . Just need to use the bike more.