Sorry to offend, Nick. For what it's worth, I hope the '75 Commando in my garage (here it is, coughing to life for the first time in 15 years for five or six glorious seconds - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUwuIseaNjg ) earns me the right to roll my eyes a just a tad at British engineers - if you haven't scratched your head at least once and wondered just what the hell they were thinking, then I'd submit that makes you a statistical anomaly among owners of a British or Italian vehicles right up there with the odds of actually receiving cash from a Nigerian prince. If you want to be well & truly offended, we should start talking about Land Rovers.
As for the battery, it and the company behind it have gotten generally good reviews from early adopters (see http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=23613.0 for an interesting look at both, a story that starts with a first-gen Shorai shorting & melting), and I find myself hefting the thing just to be amazed that a battery can be that light. The numbers on it are impressive to say the least -- though about 25% of the weight & a third the size of the dead Odyssey PC680 it's replacing, on paper it shows 270 CCA vs. 220 for the PC680 and 18 Ah vs. 16 Ah. The thing that seems to have mortally wounded the PC680 was a fault in the charging system that led to total discharge (which apparently AGM batteries really dislike); I've read that the LiFePO4 batteries don't react as badly to total-loss operation, which I've learned by dint of hard, repeated experience is a real plus on a 1998 ST2.
Last night I took a quick break from the frustrating work of pulling the left case cover & replacing the stator to mull over a new location for the battery. This is the largest-case/largest capacity Shorai that Motowheels sells ( LFX18A1-BS12), and I discovered to my delight that it fits in the tray under the seat like it was meant to go there, tucked comfortably with room for padding between the frame rails -- and still with room for the toolkit, dial tire gauge and nearly every other bit of detritus I've allowed to accumulate in there.
Speaking of my dead Odyssey, I'll happily send the battery bracket I forged for mine to whomever needs (or just wants) it - send me a mailing address. It's pictured at the address below & works with the stock battery box modified to fit the wider than stock PC680:
BRAD
From: Nick Woods <nickw@cooptel.net>
To: st2_owners@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 2, 2011 11:51 PM
Subject: [DucatiST] Re: Wiring sizes & sources?
--- In st2_owners@yahoogroups.com, Brad DeVries <triangleforge@...> wrote:
>
> With a lighter, smaller Shorai battery in hand, I'm planning a relocation from the stock location on my '98 ST2, part of Operation Get Nekkid. > Thanks!
>
> BRAD DeVRIES
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> What was it, I wondered, that so mystified and eluded British engineers when it came to the design of gaskets, seals and mated surfaces? They never did get the idea, right up to the end, that fluids belong on the inside of the engine, while fresh air and sunshine belong on the outside... - Peter Egan
>
Those Shorai batteries look frighteningly-small, but if my Li-ion AEG cordless drill is anything to go by, they do pack a punch! I wonder if their life-expectancy is good?
By the way Brad, an Egan joke at the expense of the British is fun the first time you read it, but it could limit responses from otherwise-helpful people on this side of The Pond!
Just sayin'....
NickW, UK
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