What is the best battery to hide under the seat?

[JustinB]

1976 XS650 here and doing a Cafe Racer build. I plan on hiding the battery under the seat and am looking for the best sized battery and make for that application. I'm thinking dry cell, but looking for what people have done and how they have mounted them.

Thank you all so much!
Justin

 

[barelycompetent]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I have recently done exactly what you are talking about and this is what I ended up going with. Its an 8cell ballistic evo battery. They are a bit pricey, I got mine on ebay for 135. Its very small and compact and it turns my stock 81 special engine over no problems. I custom made the battery box myself, and I used a mounting kit from dime city cycles, so I bolted my battery box to the mounting board in that kit. Here are a couple of pics of my set up, the battery and box are mounted on the bottom of the mounting board. Hope that helps ya, and make sure you keep us updated with pics on whatever you decide to do!

 

[JP50515]

Here's what I did on a cb750 build. This battery is TINY it's Ballistic brand and has never let the owner down yet. Hides pretty easy if you ask me!

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...+battery&_nkwusc=balistic+cell+battery&_rdc=1

 

[JustinB]

Ok, thank you so much. I will be building a little bubble for the tail that I'm going to hide the battery inside of. Right now, I have the frame down tot he bare metal and have cut and am currently grinding down all tabs and unnecessary "crap". I just picked up a pair of 2011 GSX-r600 Showa fully adjustable forks and triple which I will be eventually installing. Right now I need to find a rim that will work with those forks and allow for dual discs as the forks have the dual Brembo 4 pot calipers.

What do you gents know about new swingarms and rear wheels with discs as well? Also looking into rear sets that will fit up with a rear disc... any suggestions?

Thanks,
Justin

 

[JustinB]

Barelycompetent: what seat will you be using with that plate? The plate looks very high off the frame no?

I would love to see the seat/tail that you used and how it looks with that battery plate.

Thanks buddy!
JB

 

[JustinB]

BALLISTIC EVO2 8-CELL LITHIUM just purchased!

 

[I am Carbon]

I'm using LFX14A1-BS12 shori battery size
2.6" deep 5.83 wide 4.13 high It's 14AH, 210CCA, weight only 1.88lbs/0.854kg
It can be mounted in any direction
It has been good to me, but it only a few months old.
The life has been reported to be around 5 years

 

[JustinB]

Can everyone show pics of it mounted on the bike and then under the tail????

Would be much appreciated!
JB

 

[barelycompetent]

Barelycompetent: what seat will you be using with that plate? The plate looks very high off the frame no?

I would love to see the seat/tail that you used and how it looks with that battery plate.

Thanks buddy!
JB

The looks are deceiving lol. This is the rear section I am using, this is all mocked up before it went to paint, and that is the level it sits at. I dont have any pictures yet of the battery box mounted under the seat yet. I also mounted my fuse box to the bottom of the battery box, but I might have to move it as I blew my headlamp fuse yesterday when I fired her up, Im thinking the vibration might have had something to do with that but I dont know for sure. Anyways, the battery box is just barely visible under the top frame rail there when everything is all buttoned up, but again I dont have any pics of it just yet. The rear section is a bugeye seat from dime city cycles. I had it for a previous project but didnt use it. I think it fits the lines of this bike nicely.

 

[RcRider89]

Great batteries. Just make sure to keep it above 30% or the cells melt down and its dead,warranted voided...3 batteries later I've learned my lesson

The special charger helps

 

[barelycompetent]

Great batteries. Just make sure to keep it above 30% or the cells melt down and its dead,warranted voided...3 batteries later I've learned my lesson

The special charger helps

Plus one there, Im only on my second battery though lol. The first one I accidently left the key on after wiring up my turn signals. 24hrs later, dead as a doornail, and no love on the warranty. Lesson learned, albeit and expensive one but lesson learned.

 

[RcRider89]

I was using it total loss for testing. dumb. On the other hand I'm running the 4cell scooter battery.36$ cost so it wasn't that big of a lesson