Don't think I'm loving lithium

[turboprop]

Regardless of brand, if these batteries are dead if they ever drop below 10 VDC. I too killed a Twin Power, but it was my own fault. I keep the bike with the replacement Twin Power on a maintainer when its not being ridden. Has lasted over a year. Another of my bikes has one of the new Anti-Gravity batteries with the jump start feature. The partitioning this new battery with prevent it from ear dropping below 10 VDC and killing itself. To test the theory, with he blessing of the manufacturer, I left the lights on until they went out. Then simply hit the jump start button and the bike fired right up. After a short forty five minutes ride it was back to a full charge.

Bottom line these batteries are different and require different handling, but the learning curve is pretty short (and simple). Just keep it on a maintainer when its parked. Too easy.

[Deye76]

"Just keep it on a maintainer when its parked. Too easy."

And if you want your AGM to last more than 2 years, do the same.

[PoorUB]

I have three motorcycles and one tender. I could buy more, but even in the winter my bikes get moved around  the shop when I  do projects so the tender gets unhooked often. I move it from bike to bike and my Limited was on it less than a month ago. Pretty sure it was just time for the battery to die, I don't think I killed it.

I checked it this AM, it's toast. On the charger for 12 hours, checked with a volt meter and nothing.

[No Cents]

I have three motorcycles and one tender. I could buy more, but even in the winter my bikes get moved around  the shop when I  do projects so the tender gets unhooked often. I move it from bike to bike and my Limited was on it less than a month ago. Pretty sure it was just time for the battery to die, I don't think I killed it.

I checked it this AM, it's toast. On the charger for 12 hours, checked with a volt meter and nothing.

  what kind of battery was it...a lithium or an AGM type?

[PoorUB]

Harley AGM.

[No Cents]

My twin power that I bought after reading post here didn't last me a few months. Bike never sat up just went out to ride one day and it was 0 volts wtf. Went to autozone and picked a agm like used in past. Surprisingly never had a problem with a autozone battery.

   did you contact Twin Power about the battery only lasting a few months?
I would think that it would fall into a warranty issue. They might just replace the battery for you. 

[ecir50]

read in a post in one of the threads here that this was not all that easy, so no just wrote it off. The only benefit to a lithium is the weight in my opinion but waking up to a 0 volt battery doesn't justify having one imho.

[No Cents]

  it just seems your lithium Twin Power battery went bad way too quick. 
I would have contacted them and let them know your battery only lasted a few months. Be lithium or agm...no battery should go bad that fast unless it had a reason to or was defective from the start.
  Did you have a specific lithium maintainer for it?

[mrmike]

Bottom line these batteries are different and require different handling, but the learning curve is pretty short (and simple). Just keep it on a maintainer when its parked. Too easy.


for a second there I thought I was screwing up leaving the tender on all the time.

Mike

[ecir50]

  it just seems your lithium Twin Power battery went bad way too quick. 
I would have contacted them and let them know your battery only lasted a few months. Be lithium or agm...no battery should go bad that fast unless it had a reason to or was defective from the start.
  Did you have a specific lithium maintainer for it?

Yes to your question. If purchase locally I would have been less of  a hassle, just not worth my time to fight a company that, and this is hearsay, is going to argue the reason the battery died. My bike doesn't have any parasitic drain, computer or alarm system. Charging system is up to par.

[No Cents]

   I'm sorry to hear about your experience with the Twin Power battery. That is the brand I'm running.
I guess I have been lucky so far with mine. When I bought it new I contacted Twin Power and I asked them what maintainer they suggested for it. I knew going in that my old battery tender for my AGM batteries was not the recommended way to put a charge into a lithium battery.  I bought the correct maintainer and I put it on the battery when it was new so it was up to a full charge before installing it. I'm guilty of not putting the maintainer on mine as much as I probably should. So far with the occasional charge, and all has been good.

[HD/Wrench]

I went through 3 twin power and gave up in my own bike . I would forget to put it on the charger when I parked it sat for 3 weeks or so stone dead . Charge it up once it worked but would go dead the others just failed flat out while being left on the charger..  I am done with the twin power brand for these batterys . yes they warrantied them for me so I was not out money just the issue they would fail was enough for me

[No Cents]

    Steve...did Twin Power give you a reason why you had three batteries go bad?
I'm just curious as to what reason they might of gave you. This has me a little scared now.
   This is the first time I have ever heard about any issues with the Twin Power lithium batteries. I guess I need to pay closer attention to mine.

[masstch]

I haven't jumped on the Lithium wagon yet, but I have been thinking about it. i usually run the HD AGM or equivalent from Deka, usually they last a few years. The original on my '01 RK lasted 9-1/2 years! My most recent HD on the Ultra crapped out last month; I thought about Lithium again, but it seems like the tech isn't quite there, yet. I Have the factory security on the Ultra, nothing on the RK. The troubling bit of the thought process on lithium... these 'state-of-the-art' uber-expensive batteries apparently have to be coddled like a baby in order to not crap out(!).
I mean, seriously...if you DON'T put it on a tender for three weeks it could destroy it? OR (if it has the more sophisticated electronics in it) it will protect itself by self-disconnecting to protect the battery from slow death.... so the battery is safe, but the bike is no longer protected because the security is now disabled? I may have that wrong, please inform me. I often plug in the tender...but not 'every time I park the bike'. Bikes get moved, dangling cords are in the way...
If I'm *required* to have it plugged in all the time, I'd rather have a much more forgiving AGM. I have literally cranked up the RK after its sitting without a tender for 5 months... and the battery didn't need to be replaced. The Ultra, six or eight weeks.

[Ohio HD]

Agree about the AGM, they are pretty forgiving.

When I moved from Arizona back to Ohio, my '09 Ultra had sat about three months in the Arizona heat, think June, July and August without a tender. When I was ready to ride the bike back, the battery was about gone, click, click, click. I jumped it from a car, took it down the street about four or five miles, then back. Shut it off. Restarted it a few times, it cranked right up. The battery was about a year old then, OEM. That was in 2011, I replaced the battery in march of 2015.

[cheech]

Makes no sense. Wonder why the motorcycle batteries are so crappy and needy as far as charge? I have one of those Milwaukee Fuel 18V 1/2 impacts and seems even with maybe use every 2 days or so then sitting in between it maintains 4 bars on the battery level indicator forever. Never on charger. Even seems to  only need a charge  every 3 months. Lithium batteries for the cordless tools have really revolutionized them.

[Rockout Rocker Products]

I think the difference is on bikes like mine with the security system there is a slow but constant drain.

[boooby1744]

I have a friend who has been using the li fe batteries for a while. He said the only way to get long life was to use a good charger/maintainer. I bit the big one and got the Optimate 4s,so far so good.

[PoorUB]

Makes no sense. Wonder why the motorcycle batteries are so crappy and needy as far as charge? I have one of those Milwaukee Fuel 18V 1/2 impacts and seems even with maybe use every 2 days or so then sitting in between it maintains 4 bars on the battery level indicator forever. Never on charger. Even seems to  only need a charge  every 3 months. Lithium batteries for the cordless tools have really revolutionized them.

Power tools have a relatively low drain compared to starting, plus, like the other post, many bikes have security which drains the battery slowly. Lithium doesn't like to be run low. Power tool batteries have circuits in them to shut them off when they get low to avoid damaging them. AGM batteries can handle getting run down, to a point.

I think lithium batteries have potential to be good batteries for motorcycles. I am not convinced they are ready quite yet and I don't like being someone's beta tester.

[smoserx1]

I bought some cell phone batteries once and one of then showed zero voltage.  It took several minutes on the charger to register but eventually came to life and charged up.  A computer tech buddy told me lithium batteries had a circuit to shut off when they reached a certain discharge (and that is what I am reading in this thread for the MC batteries too).  So why won't they come back to life?  I was thinking about trying one too but this thread has got me scared.  I measured my bike's parasitic draw once and it is very small (about 0.7 miliamps)  I have never used a maintenance charger and don't want to start now.  Don't use them on my cars and I know they have significant parasitic drain.  The Deka type AGM batteries are still pretty good IMO.  You can usually get three years out of one and not break the bank when replacement time comes.

[IronButt70]

My biggest concern with the current Li-ON technology is the fire hazard, especially when it comes to the heat from an air cooled engine. There was a video I saw in 2017 of several bikes that burned because of failed Li-ON batteries. Unfortunately I have not been able to find the link again. I would not be willing to risk a battery fire, no matter how remote a possibility that might be, just to save a few pounds of weight. JMHO.

[PoorUB]

I laugh at the weight reduction too. I can understand if you are building a canyon cruiser and spend a bunch of money on lighter wheels and such, but on a stock 900 pound touring bike loaded up for a couple weeks with mama on the back it seems ridiculous. Hey! I shaved off 5 pounds, it weighs 1245 pounds now!

[boooby1744]

I weighed the stock and the twin power on a postal scale, 15.2 pounds difference. My CCE aluminum top tree and longer fork tubes were 1.6 pounds  lighter. I can now eat all the pie I want...

[PoorUB]

I weighed the stock and the twin power on a postal scale, 15.2 pounds difference. My CCE aluminum top tree and longer fork tubes were 1.6 pounds  lighter. I can now eat all the pie I want...

Ok, so 15 pounds, my argument still holds. a drop in the bucket on a 900 pound bike plus rider, passenger and gear.

[Langwilliams]

I see them used a lot on custom builds that use efi since you can fit the battery and the ecm in the standard size battery box. When I had my V rod some of those guys ran them because the battery is at the highest point on the bike, right behind the steering head...they said since it was a 10 lb saving on that point it was worth doing but with the battery under the seat it doesn't mean anything....unless you're stripping everything down an going with CF wheels an everything. Somewhere I was reading on performance baggers with CF wheels, inverted forks an minimum everything. I imagine a really good rider that rides aggressively would notice a 100 pound drop....Me, I would feel the difference parking an backing but probably not on the road.