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Looking for a smaller battery!

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I was Just wondering if anyone knew what CCA (cold cranking amps) I should Have to turn over my 4 cylinder 1980 gs550e-
I?ve looked at any where from micro 12v batteries that don?t even say the cca, all the way up to the antigravity and shorai Batteries, I?m not trying to skimp out on a battery but would like to save it where I can! I?ve seen some that have had 50 cca and some more or less, I cant Find a number for my bike so if anyone knows what would work I would Appreciate it!
 
What is your incentive for a "smaller battery"? :-k

And how much are you willing to pay for it?

Keep in mind that your bike is electric start only, so you will need to keep it in top shape so that it will start easily the FIRST time, if you go to a smaller capacity battery.

If you are trying to save weight, you will only be saving about 7 or 8 pounds on a 500-pound bike. Unless you are racing, you will likely not notice the difference. If you ARE racing, you likely have the wrong bike.

If you are trying to save money, a smaller, lighter battery might not be proper, either. If you simply choose a smaller battery, say, for a moped, you will have 12 volts available, but maybe not enough to start the bike. By the time you get one large enough to handle the starter, you are going to be within a couple pounds of the stock battery.

My recommendation is to stick with the stock size, but definitely upgrade to a sealed AGM battery. Note that "AGM" is a construction type, not a brand name. One popular battery here is from MotoBatt.

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Bike batteries are normally measured in AH. I wouldn't go under 10AH. The smaller the battery the less backup power you have. There are some lithium ion batteries that are both small and powerful, but they are $$$$
 
I find from the Yuasa Catalogue that a 550 needs a conventional Yuasa YB10L-A2. ...about 10AH . from their graphic, CCA is about 100.

They say you can do better (~150CCA) with their "Maintenance Free" or "YuMicron"...but I don't think they sell Lithium types and none of the fancy ones they sell will fit exactly as well as the YB10L-A2...ie: be careful of which post is which to suit what your leads can reach...

All to say, I guess, download some catalogues and read them closely
 
Antigravity do one that is compatible.... they have a sale on at this time of year too :) Their new batteries have "jumpstart" on them (i.e. they won't go flat, the BMS cuts the power & you can get a last kick out of it by pressing a button on top).
 
I picked up a Full Spectrum Lithium battery for my race bike. Yes it’s light and more importantly in my situation very compact. Went with an aftermarket rear subframe with only enough space for such a size. CCA’s is 210 and more than enough to spin the SV650 over and if I had to guess has more compression than my ‘79 850. Worth a look.

Seems like i’ve read that my charging system is not built for such a battery though. Someone more knowledgeable can comment on that.
 
Someone more knowledgeable can comment on that.
Click to expand...
That'd be the guys that sold you the battery..I'd guess they are much more suitable now than they were...with their own internal circuits to modify the standard charging system's output
 
Seems to me we've been around the block several times already on switching to Lithium batteries and a regulator swap IS required.
 
You might spend some quality time curled up with the list of Motobatt options and dimensions.

Motobatts are very high quality AGM batteries, and many have terminals on four corners to cover more applications.

The correct one for your bike is the MB10U
https://www.motobatt.us/parts-finder?type=4&make=57&year=1980&model=GS550E %28DISC BRAKE%29

However, you can filter through the other options if you're looking for something smaller that still should do the trick if your carburetion and charging are 100% on point:
https://www.motobatt.us/products/batteries/quadflex-agm

There are dimension and cost sliders on the left, and the batteries are listed in generally ascending order of size and capacity. Their MB10U is listed at 175CCA and 14.5Ah. The Yuasa AGM for that application is listed at 10Ah and 170CCA.

Exactly how far down the scale of capacity and cranking you can safely go is hard to say. I can say I've seen a GS1000 wearing a tiny SLA battery (the battery was in a tiny box attached to the swingarm; I think it was underneath), and it gave no trouble starting in several days of sporty riding in fall weather. But the bike was beautifully restored and perfectly tuned, so it sprang to life instantly as any GS should.
 
As much as we like to talk about smaller batteries and such, the OP has not been back to visit this thread for 10 days. In fact, the "last activity" in his profile and this thread have the same time stamp, so he hasn't even logged into the forum since asking this question.

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Steve said:
As much as we like to talk about smaller batteries and such, the OP has not been back to visit this thread for 10 days. In fact, the "last activity" in his profile and this thread have the same time stamp, so he hasn't even logged into the forum since asking this question.

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Click to expand...
True but we're middle aged men, giving advice whether it's warranted or not is encoded into our DNA.
 
Well, a peek at the thermometer shows that there ain't much better to do right now than pontificate on t'intarwebz.

Besides, maybe this discussion will demystify batteries a little and benefit somebody somewhere someday.
 
Here's another Motobatt question for the gurus. My GS650G uses a Yuasa YB14L-A2. The Motobatt equivalent is the MBTX14AU. Can I charge the Motobatt with a Yuasa SmartShot 900 Battery Charger/Maintainer? It's a 900 mA wall wart charger.It supposedly switches from charge to float at 14.4 V whereas the Motobatt wants 14.8 to 15 V for a full charge. Hmm, maybe I just answered my own question.

I hate to buy another charger, but I also don't want to buy another Yuasa battery

Jim
 
I've never had any problems maintaining my Mototbatts so far with ordinary battery maintainers.
However, there is a position on them which seems to imply that it's suitable for AGMs. The instructions are vague.
Normally I just clip them on and leave them to it, with no downside so far.
I learned the hard way, with conventional lead-acid batteries, not to leave them on continuous maintained charge, so I'm fairly careful to only top up the AGMs every few weeks or couple of months for a few days max. If I remember to do it, I sometimes flip the charger to the supposed AGM position during that.
 
It'll be fine; just throw the maintainer/charger on for a few hours once a month or so.

Whichever maintainer you're using, it's really much better to only use them sporadically rather than leaving them hooked up all the time.

In theory, leaving a "smart" maintainer (NOT a trickle charger) hooked up all the time is just fine. And it is fine, if nothing ever goes wrong.

In practice, you're placing a tremendous amount of trust, perhaps your very life, in a hunk of very, very cheap Chinese electronics. Yes, even "that" expensive brand uses the exact same ha'penny charging chip and all the capacitors, resistors, etc. are sourced from the lowest bidder and slapped together at warp speed on the other side of the globe. If one tiny little thing in that mass of penny pinching value engineering goes wrong, there goes your battery, maybe your motorcycle, and perhaps your house or even you.
 
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