Well, for anyone interested or contemplating the different battery tech, here's what happened this morning:
Fitted the SI battery we bought for our Genny to my 550 - no problems with leads as it's a 4 terminal type like the Motobatt but will need packings as Ken suggested, as it's smaller. The 550 fired up as normal - faster turning but no better or worse for all cylinders to eventually chime in.
Ran the bike for about 5 minutes - battery showing 3 lights (full charge). Switched off and with the kill switch off, gave it 5 x 10 second bursts with 10 seconds recovery between each. I think if you have a bike that won't start after that, it needs further investigation and more than just a new battery! 10 seconds is longer than I ever need or use. Battery test now down to two lights - 50% if it's to be believed but it was still turning over acceptably.
Decided to take the battery off again and put on charge - as I said, I have a stabilised power supply and can vary both current and voltage. I normally charge a Motobatt at 14.5 volts and the current gradually drops from the max of 3amps to almost zero in a few hours.
I tried this setting on the SI battery but it remained on constant current and didn't flick over to constant voltage after 10 mins. I lowered the voltage to 13v and it started the usual sequence and the current gradually dropped from over 2 amps to less than 0.5 in about 15 mins. 3 lights back on! They do say that they are very fast to charge.
I think for anyone without a variable supply, these batteries might need a dedicated charger - I don't have experience of these normal DIY chargers, so can't say. Forgot to say, the charge voltage on my 550 at 3000rpm with this SI battery fitted was 13.4volts, so I would be happy to give it a longer term test sometime. Perhaps there's a more sophisticated REG/REC available these days. Not sure what you have on your VT1100C Ken?
Oh and by the way, the Motobatt for the 550, 400 and 350 fours weighs 4346 grams - this SI one weighs 939 grams - thats 21.6% - unbelievable!
Ian
