Battery Tender season | GTAMotorcycle.com

Battery Tender season

kwtoxman

Well-known member
We're coming close to Battery Tender season here and I wanted to share a good offer I recently found (IMO).

I've been a happy Battery Tender Plus owner for well over a decade. This upgraded unit from basic less expensive offerings has been great to me. It has temperature compensation, 4 program microprocessor control, high current charging (faster, great when used with vehicle batteries) and a float mode. The 10 year warranty is impressive as well.

I now have a lightweight Li iron phosphate battery and came across this Batty Tender offer from the same quality manufacturer. It works with regular (lead acid) batteries as well as GEL, AGM and lightweight Li iron phosphate batteries (switchable with separate programming for each). Five year warranty.

$50 and free shipping here
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEW-BATTERY...DER-12-VOLT-LITHIUM-ION-AGM-ACID/401586324728

The Battery Tender Plus for those who don't need Li iron phosphate battery capability can be found here for a good price in Canada.
https://www.amazon.ca/Battery-Tender-021-0128-Maintain-Damaging/dp/B00068XCQU

Cheers
 
Save your money. Go out and start your bike 4 times over the winter, pick days where it's 0 or higher (there are plenty), run the bike at fast idle till it comes up to normal operating temperature and you'll be good.

I have 5 bikes in my garage, they all start fine -- the last battery I replaced was in 2013.
 
That's not for me. I tried that 'method' on one of my first motorcycles (and a few cars) a long long time ago and was very unimpressed with the results. The wear and tear of cold starts plus the moisture it introduces into the engine is far from optimal. I now store with fresh oil & filter in the fall and keep the battery fresh and robust under periodic charging. Let the engine sit through storage undisturbed and simply prime the engine with oil before starting in the spring. My RC51 is OEM wired to crank the engine with the kill switch off which is nice. On other bikes without that feature (and cars) I've pulled the fuel pump fuse to prime the engine with oil. It works perfectly and is the way I prefer by far. YMMV.
 
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Get an Optimate 3 or 4 and forget about it. My 2011 still has the original battery in it 85000 kms. I plug it in in the winter or whenever the bike is not being used for more than a week. It is a automatic desulfating charger and tester. Have used it on this and my previous bikes.
 
That's not for me. I tried that 'method' on one of my first motorcycles (and a few cars) a long long time ago and was very unimpressed with the results. The wear and tear of cold starts plus the moisture it introduces into the engine is far from optimal. I now store with fresh oil & filter in the fall and keep the battery fresh and robust under periodic charging. Let the engine sit through storage undisturbed and simply prime the engine with oil before starting in the spring. My RC51 is OEM wired to crank the engine with the kill switch off which is nice. On other bikes without that feature (and cars) I've pulled the fuel pump fuse to prime the engine with oil. It works perfectly and is the way I prefer by far. YMMV.
Brother, did you think this through? Lets break this down.

1) Moisture. Your engine and gas tank are open to the atmosphere so the diurnal cycle of warm/cold will cause a little (beer can) condensation while in storage. Fortunately winter is dry, so condensation is less of a problem than it is in spring and fall. Warming the engine and the heat will drive anything that condensed or settled in the crankcase and exhaust. We can have a deeper physics discussion however to keep it simple, ask yourself if you have ever seen or heard of condensation damage in a motorcycle (other than empty gas tanks rusting out)? Likely not, so this point is moot.

2) There is certainly wear upon starting however you must put this into perspective. 4 starts over the winter season (Dec, Jan, Feb & Mar) is hardly going to create wear -- even with thickened 15/40 oil. The engine is not under load when it starts, it will lubricate just fine without priming. A hot summer start with thinned out oil and heat expanded pistons will create more wear than a cold winter start.

Sure winter can be cold, but also remember were in the GTA where the average high in the coldest month is 0C, finding 1 degree days to start your bike isn't tough. If your bike doesn't start easily at 0, you have other problems.

You motorcycle is a well designed machine that needs very little to hibernate over a GTA winter. Visit her every few weeks when the days hit 0, fire he up and run till she is warm. She will be as ready on April 1st as she was when you put her in the garage in November.
 
Brother, did you think this through? Lets break this down.

1) Moisture. Your engine and gas tank are open to the atmosphere so the diurnal cycle of warm/cold will cause a little (beer can) condensation while in storage. Fortunately winter is dry, so condensation is less of a problem than it is in spring and fall. Warming the engine and the heat will drive anything that condensed or settled in the crankcase and exhaust. We can have a deeper physics discussion however to keep it simple, ask yourself if you have ever seen or heard of condensation damage in a motorcycle (other than empty gas tanks rusting out)? Likely not, so this point is moot.

2) There is certainly wear upon starting however you must put this into perspective. 4 starts over the winter season (Dec, Jan, Feb & Mar) is hardly going to create wear -- even with thickened 15/40 oil. The engine is not under load when it starts, it will lubricate just fine without priming. A hot summer start with thinned out oil and heat expanded pistons will create more wear than a cold winter start.

Sure winter can be cold, but also remember were in the GTA where the average high in the coldest month is 0C, finding 1 degree days to start your bike isn't tough. If your bike doesn't start easily at 0, you have other problems.

You motorcycle is a well designed machine that needs very little to hibernate over a GTA winter. Visit her every few weeks when the days hit 0, fire he up and run till she is warm. She will be as ready on April 1st as she was when you put her in the garage in November.
Think?

Winter is not dry in the GTA. https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-Humidity-perc,toronto,Canada
~80% average humidity.



Short commute can mean moisture in your engine.
http://www.startribune.com/short-commute-can-mean-moisture-in-your-engine/146178385/

Your engine runs least efficiently during the first 20 minutes or so after cold start-up, before it has warmed to operating temperature. During this time, it runs rich (high gasoline-to-air ratio to prevent stalling) and water vapour builds up in the motor oil and the exhaust system.
https://www.wheels.ca/news/how-cold-temperatures-affect-your-car/

While there’s a little dissent, most mechanics will tell you to change your oil just before parking your car, and then leave it be.
https://driving.ca/porsche/auto-news/news/storing-your-car-for-the-winter-follow-these-eight-tips

There are varying theories about periodically starting the vehicle. This writer feels unless you get the engine up to operating temperature for a good 10-plus minutes to burn off the water vapors that initially develop at startup-cold operation, starting is not a good idea. Anything less will leave water in the combustion chamber and all exhaust components.
https://www.hagerty.com/articles-vi...01/Step-by-step-guide-to-winterizing-your-car

IMO it's crazy bizarre to say that a hot start has more wear than a cold start. Cold starts are simply where most wear happens.
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/why-most-engine-wear-occurs-during-cold-start-up.929237/
https://www.thestar.com.my/data/archives/2013/07/04/16/02/cold-starts-and-engine-wear/
http://www.advanced-auto-maintenance.com/avoiding-start-up-engine-wear.htm

I'm very comfortable with my winter storage habits over the last 30 years. Let's move back to the subject of the thread which is battery tenders. I posted this thread just to share a few battery tender prices with the forum.

Here's an article with some battery tender talk.
https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2017/11/17/mythbusting-seasonal-storage
 
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that charger is less than half the price of a new battery, good deal.

You can buy the el cheapo battery from Kapscomoto for less than money than the charger. El cheapo batteries work fine fwiw.
 
I have a few bikes with lithium batteries in them. None of them have required any attention whatsoever over the winter. I'm usually riding regularly into November and resuming riding regularly in March, so they're really only stopped for three or four months.
 
Did you actually read any of those articles? They are about cars... with big engines... and typically old... and when they talk about storage, they mean months or years (when they discuss winter storage they call that a 'blip' that requires nothing but a charged battery.) Even at -10, your bike warms quickly, it reaches operating temp about 4 times faster than a car.

If you drive a car in the winter you probably cold start it 200+ times... do you really think starting a bike 4x over the winter will have a meaningful impact on it's engine life?

OK, back to your charger discussion -- my position is you don't need one for a motorcycle. At least that's been my experience over the 40 years and 20+ bikes I have owned. My current collection ranges from 2 to 50 years old, none of them ever needed to suck the teat of a battery tender to survive a winter.
 
I have a few bikes with lithium batteries in them. None of them have required any attention whatsoever over the winter. I'm usually riding regularly into November and resuming riding regularly in March, so they're really only stopped for three or four months.

Do you get decent start up in cold weather with these? I’ve wanted to get one for a while but was always put off by the supposed cold weather performance. You can get really decent cca values it seems and that’s what I’d be looking for starting a 1300cc twin.
 
Do you get decent start up in cold weather with these? I’ve wanted to get one for a while but was always put off by the supposed cold weather performance. You can get really decent cca values it seems and that’s what I’d be looking for starting a 1300cc twin.
FWIW my shorai style Li iron phosphate battery does the job in my 1000 vtwin but it cranks slower than I'd like. It's part of the reason I'm looking at a premium Li battery tender. My Li battery is not greatest in cool weather either. I've seen it actually improve its output under draw in cool weather (a well known behaviour).

I've heard good things from premium suppliers such as Speed Cell. https://shopspeedcell.com/collections/batteries

For the price of a Li battery I want to keep it fresh. The battery tender plus I use has allowed me to keep using an 11 year old original battery in my one car. Still strong.
 
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FWIW my shorai style Li iron phosphate battery does the job in my 1000 vtwin but it cranks slower than I'd like. It's part of the reason I'm looking at a premium Li battery tender. My Li battery is not greatest in cool weather either. I've seen it actually improve its output under draw in cool weather (a well known behaviour).

I've heard good things from premium suppliers such as Speed Cell. https://shopspeedcell.com/collections/batteries

For the price of a Li battery I want to keep it fresh. The battery tender plus I use has allowed me to keep using an 11 year old original battery in my one car. Still strong.

Thats what I heard too but that was a few years ago. I was hoping the low temperature behaviour had changed.
 
Odd thing about Li batteries, they are pretty good down to about zero F , most wont be starting an engine on a bike or RV at that temp, but if you turn on the headlight for about 1 min, it warms the battery. It starts the Li ions moving about. Often if the engine doesn't catch on the first crank, the activity in the battery perks it up and it has more zip on the second crank. They behave different from lead batteries.

We are using OPE Li3 batteries in the boat, they sit for 5 mths in winter and can go to 90% discharge with no ill effects but go on a smart charger. $6,000.00 ea and there are 2 of them . Its arguably the best Li battery on the market, US made, they plug in similar to new aircraft batteries with giant bronze plugs so pulling them out is a simple process.
 

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