I almost posted this in RipnSht's thread, since he's ben talking about them, but realized as I was writing it that I didn't want to hijack him, so I'm posting it separately instead...

I was just looking at the Ballistic Batteries online last night. Their 4-cell Lithium Ion battery looks interesting for sure. Certainly smaller than anything else, but then it gives you much lower cold cranking amps....

I was originally looking at the Mini-Battery install thread:
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1259644714
I really want to mount my battery in this spot.
He's using a Yuasa, YTZ7S: that has 130cca.
It's 4.6 lbs, and about $100 on Fleabay.

Ballistic 4-cell has 135cca; it's tiny and not too expensive ($105) ... but is it strong enough?
(The replacement stock batteries have 210-220cca, depending on where I look. I'm not sure what the original factory batteries were since these all claim to be stronger than and outperform the stock battery.)

RipnSht's 8-cell Antigravity battery has 240cca, but it's almost $200.
Ballistic has an 8-cell with 275cca for $142.95. (it's just slightly bigger, slightly heavier than the Antigravity.)

Here's my question...
If the YTZ7S with 130 Cold Cranking Amps is enough to start and run the bike well, then the Ballistic 4-cell battery, with 135cca should work just as well, right? It's super-tiny and around the same price, so it seems like a much better deal, but what do you guys think?
Too good to be true?

If anyone has any experience with Ballistic's batteries, I'd love to hear from you...

teabowl13 wrote on 12/09/11 at 11:12:08:


i went with the bigger one cuz id rather be safe than sorry but yes im sure my battery is overkill

http://antigravitybatteries.com/?page_id=994

The Antigravity 8-Cell

The Antigravity 8-cell is only a on inch wider than the 4-cell, but offers twice the power and capacity. This tiny battery is one of our most popular models.  It can be used to start race/track  bikes up to 1200cc, or handles street duty in bikes up to 800cc.  This model is also a perfect for replacement for 350-650cc dirt bikes.

   300 Pulse CA 240 CCA
   9.7 Amp Hours (PbEq)
   4.25″  Long  x 2.2″ Wide x 3.25″ Tall
   1.7 lbs
   For Race vehicles up to 1200cc
   For Street Motorcycles  up to 850cc
$180

You can go with a smaller battery, but here's the catch... you won't have as much reserve.  So, if the charging circuit goes out, or you flood it, or, or, or... you gonna have to push it.

That being said, I got a cheap chineese agm battery size 10
supposedly with 190 cca

if it wasn't mainly a commuter and I didn't know how to push start... I'd worry.

Gyrobob wrote on 12/11/11 at 12:10:55:


So, if I may over-simplify what you are saying...
A Li-ion batter with 135cca could crank just about the same as a Lead-Acid battery with 220cca when you first hit the button, but the Li-ion battery is going to die off much sooner. That seems in line with what others have said above.

I guess my next question should be: How hard is it to push start a Savage?
It can't be too terrible, right? So maybe it's worth the risk just to see if it works out.
I know that most stock batteries are way over built for their bike's needs, and are often chosen simply because they are convenient for the manufacturer to use and swap between different models.

Thanks for all of your help guys!
I shall confer with my builder-guy and see what he has to say...

Quote:


Keeping the lead-acid battery would give you the advantage of warning that it's going south.  Knowing this, you can stop cranking and start pushing.

verslagen1 wrote on 12/11/11 at 21:32:05:



This is true.  As always, Verslagen speaketh the truth. 

Everything in life and motorcycles is a compromise.  
 -- You can use a li-ion battery (2.5" x 2.5" x 3.5") that weighs 10 ounces (less than a pound!)
 -- You can use a stock battery that weighs 11 lbs and takes up the same space as four of the li-ion batteries.  
 -- For that matter you could make the battery box bigger and put a Gold Wing battery in there, and have way more reserve power.  7 x 3 x 6, 16 lbs

They all will spin an LS650 motor over for a minute or more,... all have enough energy to melt the starter motor before they run out of juice if you just hold the starter button down.

Yes, the li-ion will crank and crank and crank and crank and crank and then, when it starts to run out of juice, it will crank for another 20 seconds or so as it slows down and dies.  The stock lead-acid battery will do the same thing, but take a minute or two to die after it starts to slow down.