BHPian krishnaprasadgg recently shared this with other enthusiasts:Shido Li-ion Battery For My Yamaha R1Finally!!, the wait has ended, after what I think is 3 years since my Shorai Li-ion battery gave up after 8 years of usage. There has been a severe shortage in getting Li-ion batteries in the market over the last few years, due to some regulations and import restrictions or something of that nature. Longer version: To provide a short recap, post the Shorai Li-ion, I had moved onto regular Lead-acid/AGM type batteries, with not really satisfactory results. Firstly the VARTA AGM(TTS-10S-BS), which was did it’s job properly only when the battery was almost full in charge, just a couple of weeks of non usage and the battery would struggle to get the bike started, not really the batter’s fault the crossplace R1’s are known to have a very heavy crank and takes a lot of juice to get it started and this puts a lot of load on the battery. The Varta had 150CCA, and that didn’t help really. Anyways, the VARTA barely lasted for one year before giving up, and I had moved onto the B.S SLA BTZ10S, which had a slightly higher CCA at 190. The B.S Battery actually gave me about 2 years of proper usage, with it giving me trouble only towards the end of the 2 years, where the bike would struggle to start when the radiator fan is on. Why? Because usually to trigger the radiator fan the coolant temp is 105 degree C or higher and that means the bike is already pretty hot which means teh battery is also hot(battery placement location doesn’t help), 2 55W projectors are asking for juice from the battery and the Raditor fans are also asking for juice all while the starter motor is under constant load, all together the poor battery just could’nt manage this properly, the solution i was resorting to was to not crank the bike if the temp is more than 105 degrees C, which meant fuel breaks was alsways an extended breaks and I usually tend to not switch off the bike for shorter breaks during rides(which started to get a bit irritating) The shido comes with a “State of Charge” button, which allows the user to check the charge level on the battery at any point in time. Here you can see the TEST button for the same. Here you can see how it shows the state of charge All throught out these 3 years, I would thoroughly miss the convenience of the Li-ion battery. While I had the Shorai, I have not had to face this issue even once. Anyways, the hunt went on for 3 years before I could finally get my hands on a new Li-ion battery in the form of the Shido LiFeP04 (LTZ10S) battery. New Li battery goes in It cost me an arm and a leg, but I finally got it done. Worth every penny, the battery has been installed for a month or so now and has been put through the wringer and has stood up to the test each time. Just to put things into perspective, the VARTA has 150CCA, the B.S SLA has 190CCA, while the Shido Li ion has 280CCA. This alone makes a world of difference. Oh yes, to add to all the other positives, the Li battery weighs almost nothing. While the B.S battery weighed in at 3.1 KG, the Li battery barely hit 1KG on the scale, coming in at around 920grams B.S SLA battery weigh-in Shido Li battery weigh-in Post the battery install took the bike out for a ride during that weekend and put it to the test with several hot starts with the coolant temps above 105 up to 116, and the bike always started up with just half a crank. Safe to say my starting issues have been addressed for the time being. Hopefully, I can get a good 5-6 years of usage out of this battery. Fingers crossed. Customary ODO shot post the ride Cheers KrishnaCheck out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
