I had some starting issues several weeks back now that all cleared up and the bike has been starting and running well. However last weekend its started cutting out on me a bit and I had to crank it several times to get it started. Finally I twigged what was happening and it wasn't the fault of the bike, the cable from my heated grip on the accelerator side was pressing against the red kill switch button. Before I became aware this, I probably tried to start the bike between 7-8 times but that was enough to completely drain the battery. I pretty much keep it on trickle charge most of the time and only have it not on charge when I charge the other bike for a couple of days. Would a shorai battery last any longer if charged or would it also rapidly depleat if I was to suffer more starting difficulties
With a PB equivalent 18ah Shorai (LFX18) there is 6ah of actual storage in the battery .
This is listed on the Shorai site but it's kind of in the fine print.
With a 12 ah lead acid you have 12 ah of storage.
So the Shorai will crank like an 18 ah lead acid battery but only for a short time.
It's got to get the job done fairly quickly or it is spent. They have a high flow rate (this is the 18ah equivalent part) so they can provide great power, but there's not much of it!
The lead acid battery you have now ( I'm assuming it's something like a 12ah) will grind away much longer.
I found out about the tiny storage capacity of my 18ah rated LiFe battery when I was about 300 miles from home and charging stopped on my MK3 Commando. The charging had stopped long before that, but this is when the bike stopped.
Roadside, I installed a spare, fully charged 18ah pb /eq LiFe battery thinking it would run all day. About 50 or 60 miles down the road the bike shut down again, low voltage.
Fortunately I was at a summit and was able to coast about 5 miles down into a small town.
Bought a battery charger, charged the lead acid battery overnight and made it home dead loss the next day, 200 miles on one charge.
Glen