Lithium Phosphate Batteries

[psg]

www.carbon-speed.com/prod.htm

Anyone had experience with these? Expensive but size,weight advantages might be worth it.

Stu

 

[padlock]

I can't believe that nobody here has any experience of these!!!! need to know so i can make my new, very small, battery tray.

 

[Laverdalothar]

Hi there,

friend of mine is using one of these with 4,6Ah in his 668 Zane, No issue, 5 kilo saving against the Hawker!

BUT: the 668 has a starting load of between 90 and 130A, which is no problem for this pack. My Formula has - no joke - 320A, which would make this pack melt within seconds if the bike does not start on the first attempt. So - first check your bikes load with an ampere-meter before you install one...!

 

[Rob]

I think you need to read up on the technology.  From what I've found (and it ain't a lot) it seems these cells in 'racing' applications are designed for high current (starting duty) rather than providing ampere-hours, hence their light weight.  Their original application appears to be centred on electric vehicles where their increased power density means greater range and / or lighter weight.

Using a Racing Battery on a on roadbike requires a little extra care as they don't carry the excess Amp Hours that a Lead Acid unit does. The main problem is alarms - Racing Batteries don't like being drained absolutely flat and being left in the garage in a discharged state. But as long as you get your optimate attached within a week or so of putting her away you'll be fine. Likewise, you'll damage the battery if you leave the headlights on and the engine off for more than 10 minutes or so.

This suggests to me that they won't be any help in supplementing weak 180 alternator output - 10 mins of headlight (& tail light) is less than an ampere-hour of capacity!  Laverda fitted a 32 Ah battery for a reason....lots of cranking amps and lots of reserve capacity.  IMHO the AGM design is a better bet if you don't want to be left stranded and have a bike with a regulated output - they provide a useful weight/size saving and can still support 300+ CCA with 12-16Ah capacity.  See Odyssey, Deka, Yuasa

Another warning -

Don?t keep cranking the motor over with your Racing Battery fitted ? you?ll damage it

 

[Laverdalothar]

yep - that's what I said. The friend I was talking about has an electronic engineering background as far as I know and he said even the biggest pack with 4,6Ah does not have more than 170 - 180 starting duty to offer; if you stress it with more, it'll melt down soon. No problem on a small engine or a new japanese easy cranking engine, but our old bangers? Not sure...

 

[julian]

Sounds like very good advice, All of it!

They do seem much better suited to racing applications than real road / touring use!
However You could also use two 8packs and still save 2.8kg gain over the Yuasa, wire them via a master switch so you can use them separately and you have one for backup, or two to start and one for running.
We do this regularly with the pre-war cars that have very poor std charging systems, and use one battery alternately to keep them both fully charged.  Getting to the limit of diminishing returns though on a bike!  Think I would stick with an Odyssey!

Julian