Smallest battery for kickstart?

Godric

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So I want a semi naked look on my 81 xs and I was wondering if this duracell would work well? It's a 12v .8ah I only plan on using the kickstart
 

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That's about the same as the battery on 650Central.com. Their description says it'll work in all but the longest traffic jams (or something to that effect). The idea is to not lose your lights when you're at a stop light, without having to 'rev' it, like what often happens with a capacitor. As long as it's sealed (it says so?), you shouldn't have a "leak" problem. They're supposed to not be position sensitive. Good luck, and keep us posted (for future reference...).
 
Those Tiny batteries do work. From a lot of what I read about them is they don't last long.
When the bike idles the charging voltage is low. This slowly discharges the battery. When you take of the low battery voltage causes the alternator to put out max charging current flow. According to the book that's around 14 to 16 amps. The ignition uses about 5 amps of that. The alternator rotor about 3. If you run stock head and tail lights that's another 3.5. That leaves about 4 amps to charge the battery.
This high a charge rate is more than the battery can take. This leads to early failure.
I know these batteries are small and easy to hide. They don't cost much either. I guess if you keep this in mind and keep a few extra's on hand you should be ok.
Most batteries can handle a charge rate about 10% 15% of their amp hour rating. On these tiny batteries it may be more, I'm not sue
Lets do a bit of math. A .8 amp/hr battery X 10% = .08 amps. 4 amps - .08 amps = 3.92 amps more than the battey needs to charge. Granted this high charge rate doesn't last long, the battery charges quickly. Most batteries aren't really designed for that rapid a discharge recharge cycle.
A larger battery such as a 4 amp hour battery will handle this abuse much better.
Just a few things to think about.
Leo
 
That's a good point, Leo. Another option is one of those teeny tiny "Antigravity" batteries. They're kinda spendy, but you can hide them almost anywhere. They have one model in particular, (memory fails...) that I was planning on using in "The Basketcase". But, I'm keeping the electric start...
 
I have this one on my build and works great! No problem using the e-starter cause thats what I planned on doing right from the get go. You can see my start button to the right of the pic on the electrics box. JC
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