pereiracycles
XS650 Enthusiast
I haven't posted much here, but thought I'd throw out my first impressions of the Sparx capacitor. Last year my stator failed, so I installed Hugh's PMA. I love the PMA upgrade. Been wanting to get rid of the battery for years since I'm set up kickstart only. After going back and forth in my head trying to decide between small battery and the capacitor I finally thought, "it's less than $20 for the Sparx...just try it dummy."
So, I got online knowing Lowbrow carried them, but they were out, so a little google found me sevensinschoppers.com. They have them for $17.95 shipped.
As soon at the box arrived I popped it open, disconnected my battery cables, jumpered the Sparx on to the bike and it started on the first kick! That night I had some time to spend on it, so I re-routed some wires, pulled the battery box, made a replacement bracket and mounted it securely. It's still in a bit of a temporary state--I'll probably make a nice little tool tray eventually, but it's a runner for now. Here are some pics:
Sparx is under the seat next to my fuse box where the battery used to be. I made this electrical panel years ago when I first built up the bike. Next up will be to get rid of the heavy gauge battery wires:
Here's where the battery used to be. You can see my tool wrap strapped to the new "battery box eliminator" that I made and now you can see my lawnmower right through the frame!
Not a great shot, since I was too lazy to move the bike, but here's the whole bike:
Still need to tidy things up and build that tool tray, but install was a breeze.
On to the performance.
I rode about 100 miles the other day after the install and here are my impressions.
I've got a H4 headlight and normal filament bulbs in the tail and turn signals. I need to turn off the headlight to start it, but then it starts on the first kick (as usual). Once running I can turn on the headlight and it burns at almost full power when idling. If I have a signal on the headlight will dim with each flash of the signal. It is a little starved for amps at idle and will stall if it hiccups at all. Electronic ignition might help with that. I'm running points now, but will likely install a Pamco or something in the future. Otherwise it works great and *seems* to be a little more responsive without the strain of having to charge the battery (this is probably just wishful thinking).
I'm thinking I'll try replacing signal and tail light bulbs with LEDs since that's another inexpensive change. I live in a city, so I feel safer having and using signals.
All in all, I'm pretty stoked about the change and the bike looks WAY better without that boat anchor of a battery. Wish I'd done this years ago.
That's it. Hope someone finds this info useful.
-Tony
So, I got online knowing Lowbrow carried them, but they were out, so a little google found me sevensinschoppers.com. They have them for $17.95 shipped.
As soon at the box arrived I popped it open, disconnected my battery cables, jumpered the Sparx on to the bike and it started on the first kick! That night I had some time to spend on it, so I re-routed some wires, pulled the battery box, made a replacement bracket and mounted it securely. It's still in a bit of a temporary state--I'll probably make a nice little tool tray eventually, but it's a runner for now. Here are some pics:
Sparx is under the seat next to my fuse box where the battery used to be. I made this electrical panel years ago when I first built up the bike. Next up will be to get rid of the heavy gauge battery wires:
Here's where the battery used to be. You can see my tool wrap strapped to the new "battery box eliminator" that I made and now you can see my lawnmower right through the frame!
Not a great shot, since I was too lazy to move the bike, but here's the whole bike:
Still need to tidy things up and build that tool tray, but install was a breeze.
On to the performance.
I rode about 100 miles the other day after the install and here are my impressions.
I've got a H4 headlight and normal filament bulbs in the tail and turn signals. I need to turn off the headlight to start it, but then it starts on the first kick (as usual). Once running I can turn on the headlight and it burns at almost full power when idling. If I have a signal on the headlight will dim with each flash of the signal. It is a little starved for amps at idle and will stall if it hiccups at all. Electronic ignition might help with that. I'm running points now, but will likely install a Pamco or something in the future. Otherwise it works great and *seems* to be a little more responsive without the strain of having to charge the battery (this is probably just wishful thinking).
I'm thinking I'll try replacing signal and tail light bulbs with LEDs since that's another inexpensive change. I live in a city, so I feel safer having and using signals.
All in all, I'm pretty stoked about the change and the bike looks WAY better without that boat anchor of a battery. Wish I'd done this years ago.
That's it. Hope someone finds this info useful.
-Tony
