1980 XS Best battery for the price?

Alex Wagers

XS650 Enthusiast
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My bike has been running great lately however tonight I decided to check the battery voltage and it read 11.8 on my multimeter. This was before I rode it. Went for a ride and was staying at 13 volts on my meter the whole time unless I stopped at a light then it would drop down to 11. The bike is pma/ Pamco and has no LED’s. Simply headlight/ taillight/ turn signals/ voltmeter. My question is what would be the best battery to replace with? This one is almost 2 years old and I’m not a gambling man!
 
Before you start buying batteries: charge yours with a battery charger then check voltage ~12.8 let it sit overnight recheck. ~12.6 if it does that suspect the charging system or wiring, 13 is pretty low on a bike at 2-3,000RPM
 
What kind of battery? Lith-ion? AGM? Lead acid? Ganged D-cells? I run an AGM myself. No rust worries.
 
I'm very happy with Motobatt. http://www.motobatt.com/
I've got the MotoBatt MBTX14AU. It's an AGM, so no spilling or refilling. Cost me about 72 Euro's. Dayum...just found out that it's 4 years old now! Don't have any issues with it. Still holding 13V. Got one for my son's SV650S also, and there's another one coming for the other son's XS850 soon I guess. My neighbour got one on his Ducati Monster, no problem either and that one is not even mounted upright.
 
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I just keep buying Farm and Fleet batteries on sale. 14L2? Prolly 25 so far....seem to get 4 or 5 years out of them. I magic marker the buy date on them to help keep track 'cause it's a constant game of musical batteries. Nah it's gotta be at least 50 so far. Ithink they are $37.00 this week. I try to get out and make the rounds with a battery minder at least once a winter.
 
I’ll probably be looking into something like that gggGary. I left my battery on a slow 2amp charge lastnight and this morning checked voltage and it was only 12.1 compared to the 11.6 It was. Like I said before my bike was still running great with the lower voltage I just don’t want to take a chance with It getting any lower.
 
With your fancy new PMA only putting out 13 volts, it will get lower. It will never charge fully. Neither will a new battery. Charging output needs to be up around 14 to put a full charge back into a battery.
 
I am finding if you go by the cheapest price then you get the cheapest chinese crap...My 'new " battery a PowerStar was toast after minimal time and use..its made in China although it was 50 bucks..thats 50 bucks down the drain..no more crap..I'm going to buy an AMERICAN MADE BATTERY...Deka 12v14ah for $89...I have used them before ..reliable and lasts for many years...
You get what you pay for...
 
Never going back to those types because I basically suck at battrery maintenance...That and the potential to have battery acid corrode the frame from leakage....
AGM sealed..is the way I want to go...
Thanks
 
I've had pretty good luck so far with a couple Chrome brand sealed ones, reasonably priced and both are at least a couple years old now. There's only one down side to these sealed batteries that I've run across so far - they give no warning when they decide to crap out. They work fine, like brand new, right up to the minute they die. With the old lead acid type, you could tell they were getting old, they cranked slower. You had some warning that it was time to shop for a new one.

I've had 2 sealed batteries on other bikes die. They both quit while I was riding the bike. It started fine minutes earlier and then while riding down the road, the battery failed. When I came to a stop, I discovered this, the bike stalled. When the RPMs dropped down to idle and the alternator output dropped off, the bike died. Normally, a good battery would provide the needed voltage to keep the ignition going when the charging output is low. The crapped out sealed battery had no voltage to give, lol. In both cases, I was able to get the bike running with a jump and then nurse it home with the headlight turned off and by keeping the revs up so the ignition would run off the alternator produced voltage. I have since invested in a couple sets of motorcycle specific jumper cables and carry a set on every sealed battery equipped bike I have now.
 
Never going back to those types because I basically suck at battrery maintenance...That and the potential to have battery acid corrode the frame from leakage....
AGM sealed..is the way I want to go...
Thanks
The YT14B-BS is a maintenance free, AGM sealed lead/acid battery, which is what I use on all 5 of my street bikes.

For the Xs650's I get a freshly-produced AGM battery for $40 at a place called "Battery World" here in Syracuse.
 
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