1979 r65 battery

[jimborbm65]

Hi,
my r65 needs a new battery .
I have seen batteries for invalid carriages ,mopeds,and lawn mowers at half of
the price of motorcycles batteries .The same amper hour ,size and connections as well.
has anybody used them successfully ?
cheers jim.....Bolton,manchester,england

[dwerbil]

I've used them in all my bikes. Sometimes they're a tad too big and one needs to cram them in a bit. May get 3 to 4 years out of them. I'm a firm believer in not spending as much money as I can on a damn battery. lol

[barryh]

Hi,
I have seen batteries for invalid carriages ,mopeds,and lawn mowers at half of
the price of motorcycles batteries .The same amper hour ,size and connections as well.
has anybody used them successfully ?
cheers jim.....Bolton,manchester,england

They work fine. I'm using a generic Ultramax NPG20 battery. At nearly 4 years in it still performs like new and would be a perfect fit in your 79 R65. Originally cost me £33 but they have gone up a little. The NP20 version is an AGM and the NPG20 version is an AGM/Gel hybrid. You can get technical data sheets from the ultramax web site.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-20AH-Repl ... 1100536915

Jim,
I see Doug Hacking is still in business in Bolton ? I bought a Z900 from there in 1976.

[jimborbm65]

Hi , im sorry to tell you that Doug died in 2007 . and the shop is now a Kawasaki
dealership in Ivy road Bolton.
put "doug hacking" in google to read his sad story
Thanks for the reply ....cheers Jim

[Wobbly]

Battery choice is going to depend a lot on whether or not your particular bike has a kick start lever !

The first battery purchased for a '79 R100 was a wet cell of the lawn mower type (~$80). The battery fit snugly into the cradle, but the battery posts (with reversed position) were too high and interfered with the tool tray. After a year, the sloshing battery acid had eaten up both battery cable ends resulting in poor charging and poor cranking. It also needed regular maintenance.

On the second battery, I spent $20 more and purchased an Odyssey #PC680 from Amazon. This is a sealed AGM and requires no maintenance. Although the battery is roughly half the physical depth, it has roughly the same CCA as the first. Being sealed ended all my concerns about battery post corrosion. Since the terminals are low and on the correct side, the tool box now fits correctly. I merely strapped the unit to the rear of the battery cradle with two 24" releasable "cable ties" of a type used by heating & a/c repair. All problems and maintenance concerns have ended.

An Option
• When moving from wet cell to AGM, the one thing you can do to increase battery life is increase the charging voltage. Wet cells typically like 13.3V, while AGM's prefer something about 1V higher. Read the little piece of paper included with the battery and you'll learn things you never knew. You can adjust your /5 through /7 tin can regulator, or try different sealed units until you see an increase on your voltmeter. A "police regulator" worked great for me.

• This higher charge voltage also applies to the charger you use at home.

Hope this helps.

[jimborbm65]

Hi Wobbly,
the bike is not a kick start machine only a starter motor type.
Ive used a AGM battery for 2 years ...it died suddenly!.
Did not know it needed a higher voltage charge ,im 72 years old ..still learning!!!
Thank you ....JIM

[Kurt in S.A.]

Generally speaking, the earlier Airheads don't have a charging profile (ramp up and final voltages) that are correct for anything other than a slosh-type lead acid battery. Sure, sealed batteries of various types can and have been used, but the battery is not getting the charging profile it needs for a long term life. The life might be 50% to 90% of expected...just depends. I've heard that some getting long lives from these sealed batteries...there are always exceptions to any standard. So, if you go with a sealed battery, you'll have to be prepared for some life issues. Rule of thumb is that a slosh-type battery gives you some warning there's a problem...seal batteries not so much.

Another issue which probably doesn't apply to the twin cylinder bikes. The sealed batteries can be "weaker" internally. On my single cylinder R25/2, I had a sealed battery fail on the road...had to get trailered home. Vech says that he no longer recommends these types of batteries for the singles as they vibrate a lot and the more delicate sealed batteries can't take the abuse. He hasn't said that's an issue with the twins, but he's pretty confident they don't work well on the singles.

Kurt in S.A.

[barryh]

As mentioned earlier I'm coming up to 4 years on an Ultramax NPG20 and it still performs like new. I have the voltage regulator set at 14.5 volts and that keeps it fully charged.

The really big advantage a sealed battery has over a wet cell is in the radically lower self discharge rate. The ultramax holds it's charge incredibly well so that there is no need to connect a float charger if the bike isn't used for a few weeks.

A disadvantage of sealed batteries is they are less tolerant of overcharging. Unless the float charge voltage is chosen very carefully there is a real risk of doing more harm than good. They just don't need a permanently connected float charger so I don't use one. If the bike should remain unused for a long period, say over winter it would be much safer to do an occasional conventional charge.

[Rob]

I bought a Odyssey PC680 for my '79 R65 and it never failed me, unless I left the grip heaters on, or something. I'm sure I used it for the best part of 10 years.
Expensive, yes. Reliable, yes. Might die a sudden death, I don't know. Didn't happen to me, and I never knew about the want of +1 voltage for charging until tonight.

[barryh]

IMHO it isn't as much as +1 more like + 0.5

A wet cell is happy with 14.0 to 14.3 volts, any higher and it will gas and need very regular topping up.

AGM's typically 14.5 to 14.8 volts. Sustained higher voltages risk the safety valve blowing of electrolyte which can't be replaced.

Gel cell batteries have generally lower safe charging voltages than AGM because they are more sensitive to damage from overcharging but there are Gel/AGM hybrids that are happy at AGM type voltages. I run one of those at 14.5 volts

I doubt much harm is done to an AGM charged at 14.0 volts but the full capacity of the battery won't be quite realised.