• Enter the March CB750 Supply gift certificate giveaway! It's easy... Click here, post something, and you're entered into the drawing!

Lithium batteries! INFO

Tronco

CB750 New Owner
Messages
48
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Barcelona
Hello, good morning to every rider!!

I open this thread to gather some information, for me, as for others who surely can look for this type of information.
More and more people want to change to this type of batteries, I think it is important to make a site to collect all the info.

In this case, my bike is the CB750 '82 dohc, but the topic is talk of converting lead-acid batteries to lithium batteries in our classic motorcycles.

And I have several questions, as a rookie that I am:

What type of battery to take into account (amperage, volts, etc.)
Which is the smallest battery that can be installed? Weight and size, technical characteristics ...
Is it necessary to change other parts of the electrical system?
Advantages and disadvantages ... Some are clear, others are not.

I invite you to write all kinds of doubts and knowledge (also links) that you have, so we all benefit from this wonderful world, INTERNET!
Of course, we can use a language that the whole f****** world can understand! XD

We can modify this first post, to have all the info at hand.

HAHA! regards!



VIDEOS:

"Searching for the Super Battery" Some INFO about batteries

LINKS:

What you need to know about lithium motorcycle batteries
 
Last edited:
With the quality of some lith batteries now I personally would not want one. They seem to be catching on fire and not just in phones anymore. Asking for smaller only makes that more likely to happen.

There is no such thing as a small fire when they do either, look at the special PBS here in the states just did, those things actually pretty much explode. The special was on battery technology today and how it was changing for transportation uses.

They showed a company that has modded lith batteries to hold a WHOLE LOT MORE power and much less likely to short out either but the technology is not quite rolled out there yet, just now moving into the general markets.
 
Last edited:
They make no mention there that the more times you have charged a lithium battery the less overage voltage it puts out before being flat. Meaning that ten year life they talk about may not be so, that was only rated with a new one. And the ten years began when the battery was made, unlike lead/acid where the life does not begin until acid is poured into it. Meaning shelf life matters.

They also try to say that lead/acid doesn't balance out voltage between cells at charging then later down they admit they do, which is fact. Lithium do not.

One reason lead/acid go bad so quick is simply because they are made to now. If they would simply provide more space under the plates for sulfation they would last longer but no, they tightened that up, it sells more batteries. If everybody goes to lithium you'll see them doing tricks exactly like that too, what business does best, slip little changes in on you that shorten product life to make you buy more faster.

One other thing to realize is that motorcycle charging systems tend to generally overcharge the battery if on long rides at higher speeds.........
 
The only reason I can think of to install lithium batteries into a motorcycle is to power the electric motor you just replaced the internal combustion engine with.
 
They make no mention there that the more times you have charged a lithium battery the less overage voltage it puts out before being flat. Meaning that ten year life they talk about may not be so, that was only rated with a new one. And the ten years began when the battery was made, unlike lead/acid where the life does not begin until acid is poured into it. Meaning shelf life matters.

They also try to say that lead/acid doesn't balance out voltage between cells at charging then later down they admit they do, which is fact. Lithium do not.

One reason lead/acid go bad so quick is simply because they are made to now. If they would simply provide more space under the plates for sulfation they would last longer but no, they tightened that up, it sells more batteries. If everybody goes to lithium you'll see them doing tricks exactly like that too, what business does best, slip little changes in on you that shorten product life to make you buy more faster.

One other thing to realize is that motorcycle charging systems tend to generally overcharge the battery if on long rides at higher speeds.........

I don't understand too much about batteries... But I read that almost every battery maker, advice to be sure that your motorcycle charging system don't go over 14/15 volts (energy when the motorcycle is running at 3000/5000 rpm)
For safety reasons...

I understand that there are people who don't want, or don't have, to change the battery, because their motorcycles are totally original.
I think... that I would not complicate my life for a battery. hahaha!

But I am interested in this subject because I want to save the maximum space with the battery, and lithium batteries mean a significant reduction of space.

Regards!
 
Yup.............and not only charging volts but amps figure into the charging rate too. Modern cars now use up to 15 volt, past that it gets to be a problem.

FYI, the traditional 12 volt leas/acid battery is NOT 12 volts even, that would be pretty much a dead one. More like up to 12.8 volt (12.86 actually at the proper temperature and specific gravity) new and they are good from like 12.3 to that 12.8 number, higher being closer to new and better. When I used to test them on hundreds of customer cars I came up with a number of 12.2 and lower as being possible problems, most cars begin to show issues at that number and lower. I would and have assumed that bikes are pretty close to that as well.

Why if you are having issues that last tenth of a volt will make you or break you.
 
Last edited:
My vintage race bike and Ducati street bike have Shorai lithium iron batteries. I use then because the are very light and compact....The 81 CB750 I'm building now will also have one...
 
Back
Top