[cb175guy]

I am going to relocate my battery and was wondering what my options were. I am not going to be using my starter so I dont' think I need an 8 amp battery. I was thinking about a lighter 4 amp sealed unit since I will only be running the headlight and blinkers if necessary. Would this work??

 

[Coopster54]

It will work if you place battery in tail section if you have a cafe tail. It all depends on the size of the tail though. Ive seen someone still use stock battery size too. But a 4 amp is smaller to allow room for all your other electronics; turn relay, rectifier, regulator....

 

[Coopster54]

Heres another option. Personally I dont know where he mounted this. Hopefully not on the swing arm.

 

[cb175guy]

Yeah, I was going to try to tuck it under the cafe seat and clean up the appearance of the bike.

Would a 4 amp 12 volt battery work to power all my lights for street use??

 

[xander450]

The short answer is "maybe." Do a search - there's a lot of discussion on this issue here. The short version: the charging system doesn't kick in until 4k or so RPMs, and doesn't make good power until >5k. So if you're scared to twist the throttle, 4 amps probably isn't going to be enough. Same problem applies to getting stuck in traffic - if you're idling for an hour in stop/go traffic, 4 amps probably won't cover it (you can't really rev an engine at 5k on a non-moving air cooled bike for an hour and expect it not to seize).

That said, if you ride as you ought to (5-8k range or so), you don't ride at night and you don't get stuck in traffic - yeah, 4A ought to cover it.

 

[Diamondj]

Depending on the size of your bumstop seat, something like this might be an option:

http://www.batterymart.com/p-12v-9ah-sealed-lead-acid-battery.html

They have smaller batteries with less amp hour capacity too. The Suzuki T500 gets by on a 5ah battery but the headlight is a weak 25/35 watt bulb and if you upgrade the battery will go flat in time.

I'd think if you were to build a "dropped" battery box where part of it is below your frame rails at the seat, you could fit the 8.2ah battery easily. One of the benefits of using a sealed lead acid battery is you can lay it down under the tail if you need to.

Jim

 

[xander450]

Exactly - the benefit of an SLA isn't so much size (it's only marginally smaller at the same Ah rating) as it is the ability to mount in any position. I've got an 8Ah battery laying between my frame rails under a stock seat that's entirely concealed.

 

[cb175guy]

I won't be doing any long rides since a 175 is rather limiting to where I can go. I'm just building something I can blast around town on. I'll try the 4 amp and report back my findings.

 

[cb175guy]

I won't be doing any long rides since a 175 is rather limiting to where I can go. I'm just building something I can blast around town on. I'll try the 4 amp and report back my findings.

 

[snorkelfork]

... looking forward to your "i pushed the bike two miles back to the house" story...

 

[snorkelfork]

... looking forward to your "i pushed the bike two miles back to the house" story...

 

[cb175guy]

You only do that once, before you realize that all "test" runs are less than half mile away from home base.

 

[cb175guy]

You only do that once, before you realize that all "test" runs are less than half mile away from home base.

 

[joe c]

kinda funny how probably everyone here has that same story to tell.

"hi, yeah, hun, can you hook up the trailer and come get me, im 25 miles from the house. dont forget the tiedowns."

i lost a master link clip one night. managed to ride the bike 10 miles to buddies house with no chain sideplate. just kept tension on the chain. the master link was destroyed after that, but i made it.

jc