[Darren69]

Sorry for the thread hi-jack but I think there is something decidedly fishy going on with batteries on our bikes that we've not got a handle on quite yet. Maybe it's a model specific thing or a maintenance thing or something else? I was always a dyed in the wool Yuasa wet battery guy, they were good and had good service from them on 750SS, 900SS and 748 but wet batteries are not great if they spill or run flat. I had a couple of years use out of the Yuasa AGM dry battery on my S4 and then everyone was saying how much better the Motobatt ones were so I made the switch. Truth is I don't know how old the original Yuasa was that came with the bike.

I had maybe 2 years max use out of the first Motobatt I fitted and not that many miles before it would not even spin the bike over fast enough to start it.

I have an old style Optimate but don't keep it hooked up all the while, I generally tend to use it for a few hours at a time just as a top up charge over the weekend if I plan to start the bike.

The current Motobatt seems to be holding up ok even after a couple of years, so maybe I had a duff one before? It just seems that so much variability that some can keep them good for 5-6 years while from my own experience 2-3 years max (Yuasa or Motobatt). I just don't know if just I've been unlucky or doing something wrong? I know the S4 is notoriously hard on batteries, perhaps more so than the carb bikes, but how are other IE bikes fairing?