Motorcycle Battery 101

It is fair to say that the battery is the single most important part of your motorcycle because the other parts don't mean shit if your bike won't start! Our goal with this guide is to help you avoid the Dead Battery No Start, Extend The Life of Your OEM Battery and Choose The Best Replacement Battery for Your Bike when the times comes.

When it comes to motorcycle batteries one thing they all share in common is a 100% failure rate. When it will fail has everything to do with how you treat it along the way. If you follow the advice in our Motorcycle Battery Guide you will minimize the potential for down time and get the most from your battery.

Motorcycles are tons of fun to ride but really suck at charging batteries! If you own a sportbike you should also own a battery maintenance device and or battery charger. When you are not riding your bike the best practice is to have the battery on a tender to keep it at 100%. Over the last couple of years with all of the additional electronics on the new bikes this is more important than ever.

While we offer several options on our site for battery chargers we have our favorites listed here to make it simple. The Battery Tender Junior 12V @ 0.75A and Yuasa Battery Charger and Maintainer are both excellent options for standard lead acid battry maintenance. For a more robust battery charger and tender we like the Battery Tender Plus Automatic Battery Charging System. Lithium Ion Batteries need a device designed to handle their unique needs. We suggest the Ballistic EVO Power System Upgrade Lithium Charger and Health Monitor or the Ballistic EVO Advanced Charger are both excellent options for lithium battery maintenance.

No matter the steps you take to prevent battery related issues they are inevitable. Being prepared for the moment will get you back in the saddle and keep your stress in check. For those "Emergency Situations" we like the Ballistic Backpack Back-Up Power Supply and Emergency Jump Starter. We have several of these and take them with us to the race track and snowmobiling to jump start both sleds and bikes. It also comes with adapters that allow you to charge many devices that accept USB or iPhone connectors.

The Ballistic Backpack sells for under $100 and we keep them in stock here at STG because they are cheap insurance.

End of the day keeping your battery happy and you smiling in the saddle isn't rocket science, just follow the key steps below:

1. Keep your bike on a battery tender or maintenance charger when you are not riding it.
2. Before you install a new battery you need to charge it to 100% before you start the bike and ride off.
3. If your battery has discharged and you jump start it you need to charge it to 100% before riding (remember motorcycle are not very good battery chargers). Choosing not to charge it fully will reduce it's life.

Before you install your new battery it needs to be put on a charger or maintenance charger. If you want to get the most out of your new battery it has to be fully charged before you ride off. We recommend this for all batteries we sell, lithium, gel or lead acid for all brands. This step is equally as important as using a battery tender when you are not riding your bike. We have several Motorcycle Battery Chargers listed on our site and are available to help you choose the right one for your needs.

We recommend Lead Acid or Gel OEM Style Maintenance Free Batteries for most street riders as well as track riders who are not motivated by the 3-4 lbs of weight loss you can get with a Lithium Battery. One advantage the Lead Acid Battery has over their Lithium competition is they perform well across a wide range of temps (the Lithium Batteries lose a little performance when the temps drop below 40 degrees fahrenheit) which can be an important fact for many street riders.

You will find Lead Acid OEM Style Replacement Batteries from Yuasa and BikeMaster on our site. We feel the bases are well covered with these 2 brands (many of the batteries under different brand names will be made by the same vendor as the BikeMaster) with BikeMaster being our quality "Middle of The Road" and Yuasa representing as our "Top of The Line" OEM Replacements.

If you are on a quest to reduce the weight of your motorcycle there is no more cost effective mod than replacing the Lead Acid OEM Battery with a Light Weight Lithium Replacement. While every application is a little different you can expect to shed from 3 - 6 lbs on most sportbikes. Typically you will need to spend well over $1000.00 to get those results. We recommend this upgrade for all track bikes and street riders interested in weight loss that can manage the drop in performance under 40 degrees.

You will find Lithium Batteries from Ballistic, BikeMaster and Shorai on our site. We feel the bases are well covered with these 3 brands (many of the batteries under different brand names will be made by the same vendor as the BikeMaster) with BikeMaster being our quality "Entry Level", and Ballistic representing as our "Top of The Line" Lithium Replacements. Ballistic offers the EVO Power System that includes their EVO3 Direct Fit Battery, Health Monitor / Charging Port (has an LED to display current state of charge) and Charger. This complete kit gets you everyting you need to install and maintain your new lithium battery.