Minimum Battery Size, no starter, no PMA

[blackadder460]

Hello all,

Just bought a 1978 XS650E that was in the middle of a cafe build but the previous owner lost interest. Definitely a project but GOD I love this thing!

The one problem I have is that the battery is weak, like, 47 CCA weak. When I have the equipment I will remove the starter and solenoid so I don't think I NEED a 210 CCA battery and, honestly, those suckers are huge and ugly. Eventually I will be converting to a PMA so I'm looking for a cheap solution in the meantime.

I found this (http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-12V-7AH...US_Rechargeable_Batteries&hash=item2c70ad9293) and I figure I can improvise battery leads. Think it will work?

In other words, what is the weakest battery (in terms of CCA) I can use while still maintaining a functioning alternator? Has anyone ever tried?

Thank you!

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Hey blackadder460, welcome to the forum. Putting smaller batteries into kick-only bikes is a fairly common topic here. Using the forum search tools, like the search term 'battery', will yield many threads, most irrelevant to your question, but if you poke thru the 'hits', you'll find lotsa info. Here's two threads to get you started:

http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1493
http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27840

The original kick-only XS's used a 12v 5.5 ah battery, smaller than the 7 ah you're considering. I'm running even smaller 4.5 ah on my XS1B...