Always a school day with Laverdas, it's fun to get them perfect or try too. I have packed my battery space around the battery with some blocks of soft cushy rubbery stuff after my battery strap snapped in a stationary tipover on a very steep sidehill a few years back. Self-inflicted, I knew the rubber strap had perished. I had a new one but I didn't replace it as I thought it was the original strap. Sounds pretty dumb when you write it down. Any battery jumping about would not help avoid the wiring connections flexing. Mine work hardened its EI earth wiring, partially severing it 50mm up away from the battery, a very well-hidden catastrophe that bit me hard a long way from home.
SSB HVT-1 duds out
- Thread starter piranha-bro2
- Start date
piranha-bro2
Hero member
- Location
- Melbourne
Could be Mr Haggis. It has managed 4000km but is held in place by a nylon mesh strap and sits firmly in a 4-sided tray - but may have found movement vertically at the 'right' RPM. I'm going to change to a solid strap setup.
or the most destructive vibration of all, resonance internal to the battery construction, as mentioned i have the exact same battery on the Jota here... see what happens in time, stuck out away from home with a failed battery is to be addressed at home.... can start a triple on a 9v radio battery if needed on an iis long box... done it at a bike show, gave my battery to a Ducati and started my Kettle ( has a kick start ) and rode off..much to the gathered mob disbelief... no battery fitted to the car type alternator as fitted to the suzuki triples of the era...( nicked the 9v battery out of my broom wagon kit multimeter ) all useless information is freely available from here, j
Dellortoman
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- Location
- Tasmania, Australia
Reminds me of an incident many years ago. I was on a road trip with a girlfriend in my old 6V split windscreen VW Kombi. We had parked for the night in the middle of nowhere. I was aware that the battery was a getting a bit old and tired so I made sure we parked where we had a hill to roll down for a bump start in the morning, but the bloody battery didn't even enough left in it to provide a bit of juice for the field coil in the generator, so it couldn't crank up any volts to provide ignition sparks when rolled down the hill. I stopped trying to bump start before getting to the bottom of the hill, connected a Dolphin torch battery in parallel with the dead car battery to give it enough electrons to wake the generator up. It bump started OK on the last bit of the hill. Didn't stop the engine until I found a service station that stocked 6V car batteries later that day. That was probably 50 years ago when service stations actually sold useful stuff, and 6V car batteries were still a thing.
piranha-bro2
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- Location
- Melbourne
Well, I'm an even bigger fan of SSB HV-T1 batteries now ... NOT!! My mate lent me his brand new battery, identical to the one I had to remove after it completely dudded out. Yesterday, at the end of a fantastic ride, out to indulge myself on my birthday, I came to a stop having finally arrived back into the city traffic. As soon as I pulled in behind a line of cars, the motor died. Hmmm, that's odd. No ignition light, no sparks, no nothing.
Roll off to the verge and remove the seat and side covers, play with a few connections and check fuses. Nothing amiss. Eclipse voltmeter light gives me a very dull 3 quick flashes twice, then a green for half a second, then nothing. When I turn the key I can hear the main circuit relay buzzing as it tries to find sufficient voltage to function. I'm somewhat familiar with the sound, as it's exactly what was happening with the dud battery.
Battery has been in for about 4 weeks, done maybe 600-700km. To confirm today I fitted the littler Kwaka battery - surprise surprise, everything works just fine. Voltmeter tells me the SSB has 12.6V. Attach a 21w indicator bulb - lights up and stays lit, but intermittently won't glow at all. Attach a starter motor, voltage drops to 0.5.
I don't know how they construct these batteries, but something they're doing is simply not working. Fortunately this one is still under warranty, but neither me or my mate, Bryan who lent it to me, will be wanting to touch another one of these with a barge pole. They advertise 'excellent vibration resistance'. Both these batteries were very well mounted. Now the quandary is what do I look to for a replacement. Maybe I'll fork out the big bucks and try another LiFePo. I don't give a rat's about the weight; I want something that will function as intended until it reaches the end of an acceptable working life. Maybe Hooksey's guy at Ariel Batteries down the road is next port of call?
It took around 2+hrs from stopping until the truck came to collect me and the bike (peak hour is a bad time to break down!). Very glad I took out my moto roadside assist!! And I only did that because I can't push start the bike alone without a steep hill on a bitumen road.
Roll off to the verge and remove the seat and side covers, play with a few connections and check fuses. Nothing amiss. Eclipse voltmeter light gives me a very dull 3 quick flashes twice, then a green for half a second, then nothing. When I turn the key I can hear the main circuit relay buzzing as it tries to find sufficient voltage to function. I'm somewhat familiar with the sound, as it's exactly what was happening with the dud battery.
Battery has been in for about 4 weeks, done maybe 600-700km. To confirm today I fitted the littler Kwaka battery - surprise surprise, everything works just fine. Voltmeter tells me the SSB has 12.6V. Attach a 21w indicator bulb - lights up and stays lit, but intermittently won't glow at all. Attach a starter motor, voltage drops to 0.5.
I don't know how they construct these batteries, but something they're doing is simply not working. Fortunately this one is still under warranty, but neither me or my mate, Bryan who lent it to me, will be wanting to touch another one of these with a barge pole. They advertise 'excellent vibration resistance'. Both these batteries were very well mounted. Now the quandary is what do I look to for a replacement. Maybe I'll fork out the big bucks and try another LiFePo. I don't give a rat's about the weight; I want something that will function as intended until it reaches the end of an acceptable working life. Maybe Hooksey's guy at Ariel Batteries down the road is next port of call?
It took around 2+hrs from stopping until the truck came to collect me and the bike (peak hour is a bad time to break down!). Very glad I took out my moto roadside assist!! And I only did that because I can't push start the bike alone without a steep hill on a bitumen road.
1200ts
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- Location
- USA - Riverside CA
A big fan of Odyssey batteries. I currently have six of the PC680 in bikes. The oldest one is 12 years old and still works fine. All are immediately connected to a battery tender once the bike is back home. Without the battery tender they last five years.
piranha-bro2
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- Location
- Melbourne
Good to know. If you ride the bike at least every two or so weeks, do you still have to keep it on a tender?
martymoose
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- Location
- Sydney, Australia
Just put the new Deka ETX16L in the jota for the snowy, last one is dated 8/2016. It was still working on but the jota jumps into life on the new battery. $265 and Vince picked it up for me, thanks mate!!!
I am pretty sure everybody in Ciima knows about that battery Marty, I replied to a text with Martys name on it that turned out to be linked to Cima rides. Cannot win at the moment, my 5G phone stopped working when the 3G network was turned off in Oz. Hopefully fixed on Friday without me buying a new phone. The tech bloke mumbled something about conductivity whatever that is. Why my 5G phone was using 3G I have no idea.
BlackJota
Senior member
- Location
- Sunshine Coast Australia
2 Dead Batteries in 4 days
Back in April this year I purchased a replacement battery for my Jota " SSB RTX20-BS " https://superstart.com.au/rtx20-bs-high-peformance-agm-motorcycle-battery.html This is a AGM 18ah 400CCA battery and worked well, so I bought one for the SF2 as well in August this year. SSB is a leading...
laverdaforum.com
I had the same problem with SSB batteries 3 years ago.
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martymoose
Hero member
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
Hey Vince don't go out in a thunderstorm.....
1200ts
Hero member
- Location
- USA - Riverside CA
As soon as the bike is back home it is connected to the battery tender and stays connected until it gets ridden. Even on a bike ridden daily. Is this necessary on a daily ridden bike? I don't know but sleep better knowing the expensive battery is kept charged.
Regular lead acid batteries as came with the bike when new, even on the tender last longer but not anywhere as long as the gel cell Odyssey. They seem to age and die regardless of what you do.
My wife has a 2019 Subaru which is using current out of the battery even when not being driven as it has a shitload of electronics of which some are always running. It will kill the battery in two weeks of not being driven if no tender is connected.
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been running SSB LHZ-10S Lithium batteries in my race bikes since 2017 on constant loss
Been great, Mule still has her original battery from 2017 and we changed Veloce's maybe 2 years ago for some reason but still using that actual battery as a shop battery to trouble shoot other bikes issues as it still has full charge
We do carry a spare LHZ-10S Battery in the race spares, just in case one fails at a race meeting
Had a SSB LHZ-10S battery fail on me recently on a Twisted Twin that we built that was near new but have also had a Deka ETX-16L give up the ghost after only 3 weeks on another customers bike
My slant is SSB is Australian made, not some Chinese shit so even if there are some failures, I'll support them
Same as Deka, USA made, or so they say, will keep buying them until someone points out they are Chinese shit as well
Been great, Mule still has her original battery from 2017 and we changed Veloce's maybe 2 years ago for some reason but still using that actual battery as a shop battery to trouble shoot other bikes issues as it still has full charge
We do carry a spare LHZ-10S Battery in the race spares, just in case one fails at a race meeting
Had a SSB LHZ-10S battery fail on me recently on a Twisted Twin that we built that was near new but have also had a Deka ETX-16L give up the ghost after only 3 weeks on another customers bike
My slant is SSB is Australian made, not some Chinese shit so even if there are some failures, I'll support them
Same as Deka, USA made, or so they say, will keep buying them until someone points out they are Chinese shit as well
motoddrob
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- Location
- S/W Australia
I've had a good run out of SSB lithium. The current one in my GS1000 BM is now 10 years old, never charged and never failed to start the bike.
The BM started after sitting idol for 4 months, fired right up. The Motodd struggled to turn over but the shed was pretty cold and the motor felt like an ice block. Put it on charge for an hour and it cranked the Motodd over. That was also after a 4 month layover.
I'm with Red, SSB being Ozzy made I'll support them. I've had 2 replaced under the 2 year warranty on the Motodd but the current one is now 2 years old and working fine.
The BM started after sitting idol for 4 months, fired right up. The Motodd struggled to turn over but the shed was pretty cold and the motor felt like an ice block. Put it on charge for an hour and it cranked the Motodd over. That was also after a 4 month layover.
I'm with Red, SSB being Ozzy made I'll support them. I've had 2 replaced under the 2 year warranty on the Motodd but the current one is now 2 years old and working fine.
piranha-bro2
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- Location
- Melbourne
Red, was the twister still running the genny? That would mean constant loss when running below about 2k rpm, ie stopped and idling, at night, lights on. I have no idea what the run time on LiFePo's is but they do seem to label them all as 'starting' batteries.
martymoose
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- Location
- Sydney, Australia
Love to be proven wrong. As I love to support Oz made stuff, but I can't see anywhere on their website that says Oz made. They boast 100% Oz owned battery distributor. Where are they distributing from?
piranha-bro2
Hero member
- Location
- Melbourne
Latest on the SSB saga has been positive. My friend who lent me the HVT-1 tried to a warranty claim from the seller he used (via Fleebay) but they were as findable as a straight lawyer in a tax haven. So he rang SSB Vic and got a very helpful guy and we both headed out there this morning.
Long story short, he gave Bryan a credit for what he'd paid on the SSB HVT-1 and allowed it to be used as credit for me on another LH14L-BS high-performance LiFePo battery, for which he only charged me wholesale. This was against the same battery I bought in Sep 2020 that drained over the 3 years it sat on the shelf waiting unused for me to finish the SFQ. So not quite a warranty on my lithium battery but a very generous offer when the time frame is considered ... PLUS, I get full 24 month warranty on the new lithium. There's a lot to be said for going local. And can't complain about the service from SSB.
I just hope this battery is a keeper. I really don't want to end any of my rides with the beast on the back of a breakdown truck! If the demise of both HVT-1s was due to vibration then I'm hoping the super light LiFePo will suffer no such ill-effects - with so little inherent inertia it should cope with the very high rpm vibes of the SFQ (and they only occur when I'm way past licence evaporation speeds).
Long story short, he gave Bryan a credit for what he'd paid on the SSB HVT-1 and allowed it to be used as credit for me on another LH14L-BS high-performance LiFePo battery, for which he only charged me wholesale. This was against the same battery I bought in Sep 2020 that drained over the 3 years it sat on the shelf waiting unused for me to finish the SFQ. So not quite a warranty on my lithium battery but a very generous offer when the time frame is considered ... PLUS, I get full 24 month warranty on the new lithium. There's a lot to be said for going local. And can't complain about the service from SSB.
I just hope this battery is a keeper. I really don't want to end any of my rides with the beast on the back of a breakdown truck! If the demise of both HVT-1s was due to vibration then I'm hoping the super light LiFePo will suffer no such ill-effects - with so little inherent inertia it should cope with the very high rpm vibes of the SFQ (and they only occur when I'm way past licence evaporation speeds).