Well, it's time for yet another battery for The Bike What Eats Batteries. :musicboohoo:
In the past I've bought Yuasa 53030's and sometimes cheap knockoffs of same. Longest I ever got was three years out of a proper Yuasa. Most only last a year or two.
For years I thought it was my fault due to periods where I wasn't riding it (but not usually longer than 3 weeks), waiting too long to put it on winter charge (I have no outlet to hookup a charger in my spot in the parking garage), improper top-offs (too much/too little), or just having a cheapass trickle charger. But I've been good about things in the past 2-3 years and have a nicer trickle charger, one with built in self-regulation. In general it just feels like there's absolutely zero margin for error, that I have to baby my batteries perfectly or they will die in only a year or two.
I think what may be happening is something is causing the batteries to get very low on fluid while on the bike. I've brought batteries in to charge them only to find they've started to boil, but this happened with both chargers. I really don't think it's the charger, I think they're low before I even bring them in. Hard to tell with the last two batteries as they're opaque and I didn't crack them to check, but they had no slop at the vent as a full battery might sometimes do when you tilt it trying to get it off the bike and felt a little lighter? I didn't think too much about it at the time, as it wasn't too noticeable, but in retrospect it obviously would have been better to crack it, do a visual check, and top up if needed.
So questions:
1) I want to test the voltage regulator to see what the output is, but are there other things I might want to check? Also, should I test this entirely before buying a new battery, if possible, or can I get a new battery and test the bike a bit without it causing permanent damage to the new battery (assuming something is wrong with the regulator).
2) I can get a new Odyssey PC680 AGM for only a little more than the cost of a Yuasa 53030 wet ($155 CAD for the Yuasa, $180 CAD for the Odyssey), but apparently it's tall and I would have to replace the current connectors and bracket. Does anyone have the exact height of the PC680 or a pic of it in a K battery tray? Kind of hoping to get a sense of how much cramming I need to do.
3) There's a apparently an alternative to the PC680 that came out 3 years ago, the Motobatt MBTX20U (also and AGM - they're basically clones of the Odyssey line). I can get them at the same price as the Odyssey, but they're much closer to OEM size and have 4 electrodes. I've seen some threads on other motorbike/powersports forums where people say the Motobatts are fine, but nothing too specific and was wondering if anyone here had tried the Motobatt?
