LCGB Forums

I bought a shido battery for my triumph a year ago, but due to work, covid etc etc, it sat on the shelf in my garage.

The bike saw the outside world for the first time last weekend and I fitted this 'old' battery in the expectation that it would need charging. No such thing, it fired up staright away. Way better than anyway lead acid I've ever used.

Also, by coincidence I've been looking into using large banks of LiFePO4 batteries for a project at work. And I'd sum it up thus; if you buy a battery that already has BMS (not all do), then you can pretty much forget about the charging. As long as it's high enough, you'll be ok. The BMS cuts off charging above a certain voltage and limits the charge current too. Now, I clearly can't vouch for all BMS, but the ones I've seen all do.

The Shido Lithium Iron Phosphate battery that fits into the standard series 3 battery tray is model LB5L-B.
At £55, I suppose this is not too badly priced.

A similar sized lead acid battery would have a capacity around 9 amp hours.
The Lithium equivalent only has around 1.6 amp hours of capacity.
This is only likely to have an effect when bimbling around town at night ticking over at loads of traffic lights. The battery will discharge making your lights dim and flickery until you can get the revs up again. If you have an HID headlamp it will just switch itself off under these conditions.
Swapping out the standard headlamp bulb for one of these new projection type LED Hi/Lo bulbs would overcome this problem and give you a much better headlight as a bonus.

Pardon my ignorance but what`s the benefit of fitting one of these as opposed to a alarm battery or lead acid ?

Lithium phosphate batteries are:
1. significantly lighter.
2. have a much higher cold cranking capacity. So, good for bikes with electric start.
3. much better at retaining their charge. So no need to connect up to a charger on winter layover.

The downside for a Lammy is mostly:-
1. Cost.
2. Significantly reduced A/Hr capacity compared to the same size lead acid equivalent.

Theoretically, the LiPo4 battery should also last longer but my jury is out on that one due to insufficient real time data.

I have one of my scooots fitted with a gell cell alarm battery and it has now been sat in the shed untouched for 3 years. I've just tried the brakes and the brake light still shines bright. So, a very valid question Martyn.

thanks for the reply.