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Found the battery in my 2000 1100R to be dead this morning. Since it's the original battery and it did not hold the charge from a 300 mile trip last weekend it looks like time for a new one.
I'm looking at the following brands:
Exide (the oem brand)
Yuasa
Westco
Odyssey
Does anyone have a stong opinion of any of these? I want to get a sealed battery to avoid having to add water in the future, and several of these brands offer sealed/AGM/GEL batteries.
Thanks for the help.
After reading about aperris' troubles with SEP and being in need of a new PC680 I decided to go ahead and order one through Autoplicity myself. Here is the email they send out after they take your money.
Please Note: Orders are PROCESSED in 1 business day and can take up to 3 Business days to SHIP. Upon shipment, you will be emailed a tracking number. Items that show "Ships From Manufacturer" can take longer depending on the manufacturer availability and schedule of shipment.
The above is immediately followed by another email:
Thank you for your recent purchase. This item will be shipping directly from the manufacture and takes about 1-3 business days to process and then ship directly to you. We want to let you know this ahead of time so you can plan for any delay or let us know if you need it expedited in any way due to a project, build, or anything else you may be working on that requires urgency. If this is the case, please reply to this email so we can get you situated. If no action needs to be taken, your items will be on their way shortly!
Thanks again for shopping with us,
Support Team
Autoplicity.com
I ordered the battery over a week ago and have heard absolutely nothing about the product being shipped. Since they don't stock the batteries and just send your order along to "the manufacturer" with no set ship date or expectations...
The Internet is riddled with middle men extracting their toll who add zero value to the transaction most of the time. Buyer beware for sure!
Now I wish I just stuck with SEP.
None of the typical standard chargers put out a voltage high enough for the Odyssey. They won't "ruin" the batteries but if you want to get the max life and potential out of an Odyssey battery it's best to get a charger specifically designed for them. They use a very high charge current initially and go into maintenance mode at a higher voltage. All the specs are on the Odyssey site.
Most BMW bikes charge at 13.9 - 14.0 volts and settle down to 12.6 volts overnight if the battery is healthy and holding a good charge.
.........
Not that it makes a big difference, I get 14.0 to 14.2V, depending on temperature. As for my battery, it'll measure 12.9V the day after and holds that voltage for about 3 weeks without a battery maintainer. Thats using a standard BMW Exide battery.
Well after calling them and creating a support ticket (they have a system but don't respond) I received the battery today.
- Happy enough with the delivery time of one week
- Great price (we all love that)
- Downside was they are supposed to send shipping notices they don't.
- They promise to respond to service calls withing 24 hrs they don't.
Like SEP they do deliver the batteries in a reasonable time frame which is bottom line for me. Chalk it up to the joy if internet shopping.
On my order, I paid Autoplicity with my Amazon account. Amazon sent me a shipping notice when the battery shipped. I ran into slow response time to emailed questions too. I did find that if I called them, they quickly answered my questions. What I do not understand is their claim they are shipping direct from the manufacturer. I contacted the Odyssey folks at an address located in PA. They were shipping from PA if I ordered from them. The battery I received from Autoplicity shipped from California. I received my battery in a week too.
I was disappointed in the response time by email at Autoplicity. For all the "bull" I went through with SEP and to a small extent Autoplicity, I would not order from them again. If I had to order today, it would be from Amazon with its free shipping, or 2 day shipping for Prime members at $120.56 total with brackets:
http://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-PC680...&qid=1374183077&sr=1-1&keywords=odyssey+pc680
or at Batterymart through Amazon at 118.22 and order the brackets separately. Batterymart does not include the "L" brackets. They take them out of the box and charge separately.
Amazon has legendary customer service and would be my first choice in the future.
Amazon-Autoplicity shipping notice received 6-29-13:
Dear Al,
Autoplicity shipped the following item(s) in your order 103-xxxxxx placed on June 25, 2013:
Odyssey Battery Power Sports Battery
Sold by: Autoplicity
Quantity: 1
$94.24 each
Carrier Tracking Number: shipping from the manufacturer
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Item Subtotal: $94.24
Shipping & Handling: $8.49
Total: $102.73
Paid by: MasterCard |Last 4 digits:xxxx
...and that battery even though it was on a tender was so weak she wouldn't turn the crankshaft with the fine pistons attached.... I dont think it would turn the crank if the pistons were not attached either.
Dad
When you ask about batteries you will get many answers...
After the third or fourth one I found out that the gel batteries get damaged by any charger that puts out more than 12 volts.
Most chargers put out more than 12 volts.
So you must have a battery charger that is made for gel batteries! The charger I was using had a setting for gel but it put out as much as 13.5 volts.
God, I wish there was some distant planet we could put those people on.
Yes I agree.
Too many internet experts.
The worst part is some of them are vendors and suck people into spending their hard earned cash on crap.
Those Voltage Monitors that use colored LEDs as indicators, come to mind. What garbage! And then you have people doing product evaluations (webBikeWorld and MCN come to mind) on them saying they are great...based on what...nice little LEDs that flash back at you? It doesn't take much to suck the average consumer in.
On another forum, a vendor was pushing a charger (Save-A-Battery) as the last battery charger you will ever need. Well it might be if it were any good. Gold contacts...wow, like everybody needs those. It even did a "Load Test"...I knew better and it took ages to get a number out of the company. It did a load test of 20W...yep, less than 2 amps. Hell, my headlight will load test that battery better. A real load test is defined.
We should start a thread about all the effing BS on the net.
BTW, my coworker read the above comments and couldn't keep a straight face. We both work in a lab; power systems, chargers, batteries, etc.
Alternator out put and battery charger out put are not the same thing.
After the third or fourth one I found out that the gel batteries get damaged by any charger that puts out more than 12 volts.