www.zxrworld.co.uk

These have been around for a while and on Monday I decided to purchase one made by Shorai (Future). Japanese components assembled in China so cost is low but quality should still be good.

Casing is carbon composite and being lithium they are extremely light

Shop didn't have the LFX12A2 in stock but did have the A1, terminal position on these batteries isn't important as there is no oveflow tube to feed in a certain point. As it was this one was the correct way round.

Unfortunately it is too wide to fit into the battery box, no biggie as can modify that in no time , the important bit was the height and it fits perfect even sitting on top of the battery box - my seat now fully locates

They come with oodles of foam packers so you can get them to fit snug but not needed on mine. Having the single seat cowl on I have no where to put the tool roll so actually what was a problem has turned into a good thing, will now make a lid to fit over the battery box area and keep the tool roll in there and give the battery a more solid surface to sit on.

They say the battery is 70% charged and is good to go, volt meter said it was 13.8v and the one on the bike said much the same thing.

Bike fired up fine, absolutely no hesitation and volt meter showed 14.2v at tickover , on the first day I saw this rise to just over 15v but for the most it sits at around 13.8v

The battery I removed had just been fully charged so there was no problem with it but I swear the new battery has given the bike some extra "zing" especially low down - wasn't expecting this so wasn't looking for it , could be it just has that extra oomph being new and it most likely will wear off

First starting issue was last night at it's favourite haunt, the supermarket ! Had been dropping by shops doing quick stops and start no problem. A lengthy ride to the supermarket with some fast sections going into residential , stop up and go in and do my shopping so maybe a 15~25min stop.

First press of button nothing happening, 2nd with some throttle still nothing, 3rd adjusting throttle and I am now set that it's just going to drain the battery and I am facing a walk home to let it go fully cold and then come back ( what I have done in the past ). Cranking rate hadn't dropped though so on the 4th I just let it spin adjusting the throttle and it caught I had done extended starts on the old battery and you could hear it just getting slower and slower, this just powered through so next time if it doesn't fire on the first go it will on the second

I had lucky dip vouchers that needed spending before the end of the month so it worked out at costing me only 25GBP for it

I can't whole heartidly recommend as of yet, haven't used it long enough to judge that way but my initial reaction is - it's here to stay and when funds permit all the bikes will get swapped over.

It has a 2yr warranty and the shop I bought it through will give me no problems if I do have issues with it so for me there is no risk and for what little cash had to come out of my wallet a very worth while try at latest technology.

On another forum a vendor has been selling them for a while and I have been monitoring what has been said about them there, only real issue seems to be cold weather starting but there is a work around for that allowing the battery to generate heat by leaving the ignition on for a while. Plenty users have GPS, phone,heated gear etc... also plugged into their bikes and haven't reported anything untoward. However do a search and you will find folks complaining about them but you can do that on anything - there will always be a set of people who praise and another who shoot it down in flames.

I have a 1st generation PS3 thats perfect yet there are thousands of posts of how sh!te they are
One of our LCD projectors was p!ss poor yet hundreds say its the mutz nutz

So make your own descision if you want to take the plunge , I will keep updating this thread over the months especially as we are coming into the colder winter weeks.

MM!

its the GPS drain issue for me, and the cold starts. current lead acid battery is fine, but i know i can save several kilos by switching to lithium...ill wait and see what your post-winter report is

always much more likely to find people complaining about products than praising them also.

Im quite happy to leave my bike batteries on optimates for the moment though before i make the switch.

Have been trying out various FCRs so the battery got a good work out.

Day time temp' didn't get much above 5'c so could see my breath no problem - winter is here aaaaaarrrrrrggggh !

Ignition on I could see the volt meter was showing 13+ but when I pressed the starter button this dropped to 11v and the bike was churning over slowly but surely , held for a few seconds to get the carb's to prime then stopped.

Bike hadn't sounded like it wanted to fire up so fuel still wasn't getting through so another press on the button - still turning over slowly and the voltage is still dropping so I stopped again

This time , with ignition on I left it for around 15 sec's before pressing the starter - voltage was back up to 14+ and engine was spinning at full belt a couple turns later the first rumbles of fuel getting through started and couple more it caught.

During the bike warming up and me putting the choke off to soon it cut out several times but I got it to fire up almost instantly so the battery was back at being full power. Got the bike up to running temp and started adjusting the carbs giving it the occasional handful , cut out a few more times and fan also came on. Bike was now well hot and you guessed it - it didn't want to fire up the normal way so some persuasion with the throttle and letting the battery do it's business got it going again

So with this set of carbs the battery encountered maybe 20+ starts over a 40min period.

On with the next set , bike temp had dropped to the mid 60'c by the time I got round to priming the carb's , engine spun at full belt and carb's primed in next to no time and that was that Volt meter still showing a steady 14.9v at tickover and while I was arseing around with other bits n bobs the fan came on three times. Stop started it a few times and it fired up with no throttle and the battery never churned the engine slowly again after that initial couple of mins - well impressed. Last time a done a couple of carb testing I needed the battery out of my ZRX as the lead acid one was done by the time it had primed the 2nd set - once you take the punch out of them it's gone until you recharge it again and sitting at tickover doesn't cut the mustard with them.

If I am up early enough tomorrow it's meant to be snowing and zero degrees - no, actually I will be still under the duvet at that time

So far so good, will have another couple of sets of FCRs to test soon so will give it another work out then.

MM!

I know someone using them in his race bike, but says they lose charge quite quickly so the tech isn't quite good enough for road use yet...

Then again, on a race bike it'll only be started every few weeks, so that wouldn't be helping.

I am sure there are a few racers here with them - the weight saving would cost you fortunes to achieve with Titanium or Magnesium replacing other bits on the bike.

The claim of Lithium batteries is they don't need to be left on trickle chargers when not in use - you should be able to leave your bike for a year and it will have enough kick to fire it up again.

Might be he has a duff one - some say the 1st generation made do have faults.

Hows this test going?

my salvage battery came back knackered after a month of being discharged, the battery in my new bike wasn't great to start with so i am considering one of these..

Bike gets used every 3~4 days and fires up fine.

Initially it reads 14.4v when I turn the ignition on , day temp's over 6'c it seems to crank at full belt straight away. Below that it's noticeably slower but I now know to stop let it sit for 15~20secs and hit the button again and it spins at full speed.

One thing I am observing is that the volt meter is constantly reading 15.1v at tickover, doesn't seem to fluctuate from temp or if it has sat for a day or two or used each day - will contact company and see what they have to say about it. But for now I am happy that all is well with it. Put lights on or on the move it drops.

The ZRX also has a volt meter and the lead acid battery in it shows 14.8v at tickover .

Still so far so good

Mori Man wrote:Bike gets used every 3~4 days and fires up fine.

Initially it reads 14.4v when I turn the ignition on , day temp's over 6'c it seems to crank at full belt straight away. Below that it's noticeably slower but I now know to stop let it sit for 15~20secs and hit the button again and it spins at full speed.

One thing I am observing is that the volt meter is constantly reading 15.1v at tickover, doesn't seem to fluctuate from temp or if it has sat for a day or two or used each day - will contact company and see what they have to say about it. But for now I am happy that all is well with it. Put lights on or on the move it drops.

The ZRX also has a volt meter and the lead acid battery in it shows 14.8v at tickover .

Still so far so good

As far as the difference in price between Lead Acid (£24 from fleabay) and Li-ion (£130) goes is it worth it?

These batteries are supposed to not mind being left discharged? (could just be a roumer) but that would be useful to me should I continue having problems starting the bike!

I can't judge with the price as I cashed in tokens I won.

For me, being able to leave it for months at a time has to be a benefit. I bought a battery when I 1st got the bike and charged it up before using. Fitted it up and ran the bike several times with it, then I knew I wasn't going to do anything with the bike for a while so brought the battery inside and kept it in my kitchen. By the time I got round to re-building the bike, the battery was flat and it wouldn't take a charge ! Thing is like new

Today, talked with Shorai and they were concerned the battery would explode with my reading of 15.1v They recomended an additional voltage regulator to correct it but I was a little doubtful as the readings are constant and the battery has plenty kick in it so I borrowed the shops volt meter and tested it with that.

The Yoshimura volt meter is reading way to high ! At the terminals the hand meter was showing 13.8v with ignition on and while bike was running around 14.2v so, perfect

I also reckon my reg/rec would have packed in by now if there was a fault.

Today I was doing repeated stop starts and initial cold start was no problem too

Bike has sat for the past 7 days, night time lows have been in the minus numbers for the past four days so this morning while it was still -1'c thought I would see how the battery was doing.

For some reason I can't get the choke to stay on, have tightened the screws etc but still no joy , even removed the return spring but it still switches itself off No biggie really as once the bike has caught the FCRs will tick over fairly quickly as you will see in the video.

Needing one hand to film I jammed the choke at where I thought it would catch - wrong! So once the camera was placed on the filler I could adjust and the bike fired up in no time at all. I would have thought it would have started up after the initial 10sec interval I gave the battery so it could warm up and recover. You'll see the voltage dropping each start and then returning back (ignore the readings as they are not accurate) so gives you an idea of how quickly the battery gets in shape again.

Have to say well impressed with it so far and see no great problem with them , the starter sounded slow on first click of the starter button but once left and I tried again it was fine - not as fast as on a warm day but delivering enough punch to get the bike going with out drama.



Once the wallet has recovered from this time of year I will be getting another for the ZRX ( well actually for this bike as the battery in it is for the ZRX ) The next two builds will get the LA batteries in them as they are getting sold on but build three will also get one.

Have been in contact with a company producing the next generation of these batteries with double the capacity and only use half the amps , they claim improved performance too So just might need to get a sample to test

2nd vid' is just showing stop/starting with no choke while the bike is cold and again the battery is performing well in getting it going.

Today we were at -7'c

Got me longjohns , ski pants and winter jacket on and went out for a hurl as it's been 6 days with out riding already !

Much the same start procedure as last time , slow turn over on initial press , let it sit 10 secs and it span a bit quicker , tried a few times but no joy but a whopping big backfire , let it sit (ignition on) again but this time 30secs and vroom it was off

On the third attempt it was now spinning at full pace . Done a quick jaunt over to the bank to pull some cash out then another short burst to post office to pay for some Dymags then out for a 5 mile blast, 30min stop then onto a 20 mile blat

Most likely the last of the cold weather testing as I aint one much for crap weather these days So next time it's uncovered will be to give it a clean n polish

If you've been on the fence about these batteries then I can see no reason for not going out and getting one - shop about though as there are now a few makers of them. Being dry lithium phosphate they should be able to be airmailed from anywhere with out problem.

MM!

Thanks for the long term test,

I have been looking for a new battery for my zx project due to the fact the standard size battery has no chance of fitting in the new subframe.

So I need a 58mm-113mm -89mm size battery I have found a uk stockist for these battery's

So I will try out the Lfx09 a2 -bs12 9ah-12v they also do a 14ah in the small case size.

The 9ah is £92.95 plus postage and the 14ah is £129.95 plus postage.

The Battery I am using is the one for the ZXR400 L / M and fits in the box a treat with some of the supplied packing foam.

The past two days it has been used to it's limit , yesterday I drained it down to it's last ounce of power - shoved it on the charger and it was back at full tilt within a couple hours

Again today I ran it down to zero and put it on charge again, an hour later it was half charged - tried it on the bike and it fired up no worries , used it until it was out of oompth and back on charger - now at full power again

I also used the Lead Acid equal of this battery today - it discharged a lot quicker but it did recover if left for a while but once that "kick" was taken it out of it it would only spin over a couple times before chucking it , going to take overnight to have it back at full power.

So, once the SP is ready for constant road use it will get this battery and I will get the recommended one for the H , after handling the LA battery for the ZRX today plus the one for the RG , the ease of use and fast charge now justify the cost too me - still want to get one at a bargain buy but will budget at full tilt too.

Personally I can't fault them - yup a LA will go full belt in cold weather but so does this if left to warm up for 30secs - no biggie to me. The "punch" it gives is just as good or better , the re-charge is super quick and even at half charge still had plenty "Punch " to spin the motor into life.

For bikes I plan to keep this will be the battery of choice

any updates on this?

battery will have been used for a while now, im looking at getting one in a few months, just need to see how likely it is to survive british winters? although i might pack it with foam to try and insulate it a little.