by steveweck » Fri Dec 01, 2006 10:53 pm
Regardless of what battery you settle on you should always have some type of trickle charger. Whether its a Deltran Battery Tender or an Optimate it will improve your batteries performance over the long haul. Think about how often you actually ride your bike compared to how long it sits in the garage waiting for you to get off your ass. A battery loses a certain percentage of capacity each day it sits. A (smart) trickle charger will keep your battery at capacity until you roll off the couch and strap on your helmet and ride the hell out of you bike. Cold weather also effects the battery so if your able to keep the bike inside its a plus. Idling the bike every now and then doesn't really help as the charging system doesn't do much at low rpm. To make it easy the manufacturers of the trickle chagers make pig tails or connectors with weather proof caps that you can install on the battery so you can plug in the charger without having to remove the seat or body work. Although its a conflict of interest for me, I'd recommend the Optimate for the sealed AGM batteries as it provides a desufating phase in its charging process. Don't ask me about that, look it up for youself as I'm sure its on their website somewhere.
Well, Thats all I have to say about that Bubba.
Steve