capasitor or battery , opinions ?

[garage gnome]

I would like some opinions on running a capasitor or one of the very small low amp batteries . Heres why, I spent the last 2 wkends tryin to figure out what was wrong with my bike . I have the banshee swap with pamco , kick start only . My bike would idle but would not rev up , and was getting worse .After trying everthing I could think of and polishing my carb screws to brillant shine , I happen to turn the headlight on and it actually helped . that made me think it might have to do with the voltage . So i swapped out the capasitor and to my supprise it was fixed .
I had about 500 miles on that capasitor . Would one of the small .8 ah 12v batteries hold up better and last longer than the capasitors . Has anyone else had cpasitors go out , is that about normal for them ? Thanks DB

 

[glennpm]

Anyone use a capacitor AND a battery? How did you wire it to prevent the battery from discharging when the bike is not running, perhaps an ignition switch between the positive going to both the positives for the cap and the battery?

 

[ann0yed]

I eventually wired in both a tiny battery and a capacitor and forgot about it. I didn't even consider that the battery might drain while the bike isn't running - that shows the extent of my electrical knowledge. I haven't noticed anything, bike starts fine, runs fine; on to other problems.

 

[glennpm]

I guess the switch is not required if the capacitor is not damaged. Once the capacitor is charged, there should be no constant flow to ground through a good one. I was just wondering if there is some slight resistance to them, even for a good one, that could eventually drain the battery.

 

[The Bigleebowski]

Hey gang, new xs guy here and I'm prolly jacking this thread but...
If I do the PMA install and the pamco ignition swap and run a capacitor, lose the battery, can I still use the electronic start? Or do I still need to run a small battery?
I'm doing a bratstyle and the stock battery seems like it would get in the way or be difficult to relocate. Suggestions?

 

[turn left]

@The Bigleebowski you will need a battery for the electric starter. Capacitor will not retain the charge.

 

[The Bigleebowski]

Can I go with the PMA, capacitor, and nix the battery without doing the ignition switch? And just run her kick only. Bike is kick and electronic ignition

 

[turn left]

@The Bigleebowski there are plenty of micro batteries that will do the job if smaller size is all you're after. if you decide to go kick only you could do a cap rather than a battery. a lot of people are anti capacitor but there are also many that are using them successfully on their kick only applications. one benefit they note is that you will never be stranded due to dead battery. others state they deal with dimming lamps at low rpm

 

[garage gnome]

Bigleebowski , yes you can run pma, kick only with cap. and no switch , I have this but with a simple switch , didnt want some one to be able to walk up and just kick it over and ride off into the sunset on my bike ! My capacitor just went bad so Iam gona try one of the small batteries and see how it does . Your head light will flicker at idle with a cap. and while mine will start with the light on , of course its easier while off.
Iam just not sure how durable the capacitors are . I got about 500 miles out of mine.

 

[Halloweenie]

If you ran both, wouldn't the capacitor just act as an emergency backup? I would imagine that the battery, even one of those small lithium jobs, would smooth out the whole dimming light issue, and the capacitor would negate the cold weather charge loss of the battery. Is there an electronics guru that can correct me if I'm wrong?

 

[The Bigleebowski]

I'm kinda feeling the small battery. So then still do the ignition switch or no necessary? Or prolly just a good idea? So...PMA, pamco ig, capacitor, and mini battery all together, can any bad come of this?

 

[xjwmx]

500 miles isn't very long... Be sure the voltage rating is higher than what the cap will ever see or it will degrade or explode. If you increased the microfarad value it would help with the flickering at low rpm. A large cap across a battery will eventually drain the battery, it being a non-perfect cap. There are ways to hook multiple caps together to increase volts or microfarads or both. If you can get a good deal on smaller ones, say.

 

[speez]

the theory of a cap is bigger (uF) isn't always better,the bigger it is the more time needed to charge(mS longer) and smaller caps react faster, the cap just like the battary is for filtering the rectifed AC at this point your getting a pulsed DC and the cap is filling in the vallies with each pulse you want cap to charge and discharge in the vallie, yes you can run a cap with a battary i did it all the time in the car audio biz, we ran 3~6 caps each 1 being 1farad (1farad=1,000,000uF) a batt,in theory would work better becouse it is a consted dc, but never tryied it on a bike and as for the cap you don't need no hi tech just a regular DC electrolytic cap, size? i would start small and see what happens

 

[garage gnome]

XJWMX , The cap.s I bought and am running are 15000uf - 50wv , Iam on the second one now but have ordered a 12v .8ah battery to swap out and give a try . I dont know , maybe these caps. are a p.o.s. , maybe they cant handle the rigid frame . I have seen old British caps that were spring mounted ? whatever I run has to be small , so to fit in my elec. box , just dont want a big bulky battery .