Battery Upgrade

Deka batteries are made by East Penn Manufacturing - a USA company. I am not completely sure their entire battery line is still made in the USA. Even Interstate is having many AGM bike batteries made in China today.


I have had good results from several AGM YTX20HL-BS (and relates cross over part numbers) with 310-320 CCA. Even the Chinese Scorpions and Xtremes seem to work well.

I just got a Deka Extreme ETX20L AGM (thanks to Toystoretom). It's rated at 310 CCA and out of the box it tested at 514 CCA. After being on the charger for awhile it almost hit 600 CCA.
 
Mine been the ETX16L is 12mm wider, 0.7kg heavier, a bit more cranking power, after many failed starts you can imagine how happy I am with it.
 
I just bought a 2008 R3 (new from the dealership) about 6 weeks ago. Loving the bike, but this weekend it got down into the 40's and Monday morning the bike would not start.

Monday night when I came home and it was in the 70's, it started fine. I decided that the battery might have been week from sitting unused for a couple of years, and replaced it with an Odyssey PC545. It seem to start easier, but Tuesday morning with the temp around 60, it would not start again.

So, I just wedged in the PC625 and will see how it does the next couple of days. If that doesn't work, it really needs to go back to the shop and see if something is wrong. I do a lot of Fall/Winter riding, and the bike becomes kind of useless to me if it won't start reliably under 70 degrees.

Keeping it on a charger really isn't an option, because I don't have a garage. It also isn't practical because if I ride to work on a 50 degree day, I want to know that the bike will still start when I'm ready to go home.

Hoping it gets resolved because otherwise I love this thing and am looking forward to putting a lot of miles on it.
 
Those Odyssey batteries really need to be hit with an Odyssey charger to make them work to their full potential. I did the tray mod and put in a 625 a couple years ago and tried to make due with a regular tender jr. trickle charger and a standard start/charger. It let me down a couple times until I broke down and got an Odyssey charger for it. I of course used the maintainer setting while it sat in Dec-Jan and haven't used it yet this year again. Hasn't failed me yet (knock on wood), I think it has to do with it's need for a high voltage kick in the ars once in a while. Turns over fast in all temps so far this year.
 
I will probably invest in one of those, but I still wouldn't think I would need to have a battery charger to get the bike to start after sitting over night in 50 degree weather.

I'm still thinking there may be something else going on. Hopefully it will start in the morning.
 
I'm sure your experienced in the way it cranks with the stock battery in cold weather ... RRrrrrr-RRrrr-rrrr-done. An Odyssey with an Odyssey charger cranks the same fast speed warm or cold and does it for along time ... long enough to start it even after it sits for a few weeks and the fuel pressure has bled off. I was very impressed and surprised at the difference with the right charger.
 
..I just replaced my odyssey 625 today with an Interstate...this one Motorcycles Batteries - Cycle-Tron Plus High Performance - 310 CCA - 18 AH ..same as the OEM yausa I do believe..listed as 310CCA..probably closer to 270...it's about 35* to 40* around here now...after quick install, bike cranked over really fast and fired right up...we'll see what happens tomorrow morning..supposed to get down to 28* tonight..I may have screwed up my Odyessey pc625 by fkn with it to much and not knowing what I was doing..the first charger I had was only 3 amps, supposedly made for the Odyssey..I didn't get the 6 amp charger until the battery was giving me much grief..I really don't have much faith in this new one either......we'll see how long it lasts..only has a 6 month guarantee...the dealer says to only put the battery tender jr. on once amonth for no more than 5 or 6 hours..and then only if the voltage drops down to 12.5..btw..price was $77...
 
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