With the Halo's, etc., you may want to look at a heavy duty, extended life battery. Many options, but I'm sure others will chime in on brands, mW's, crank amps, etc.

 

The problem with all of this, is the initial source of power is limited. When you fit a bigger battery all you are doing is increasing the amount of energy that can be stored.

If the electrical load is increased past what the alternator can produce, the battery becomes discharged during operation.

Even if the bike lives on a smart charger whenever it is not being ridden, so the house power can make up what you discharge; eventually you have to run everything on the bike, straight from the alternator.

The alternator on a supersport is the smallest, lightest one that will do the job. Very little excess capacity. That means it's already working right at maximum production, with the OEM electrical load.

Adding running on high beam all the time, that's got to be accounted for by the design. That means the alternator has to produce enough energy to run both the low and high beams without discharging the battery, presuming the bike is running above idle, and the starter's energy consumption has already been 'made up'. This indicates the 'excess' is on the order of 65W.

HIDs do not use a constant amount of power. A 55W ballast will pull somewhere between 3 and 5 times it's 'nominal' draw, during start up. that's between 165 and 225 Watts. Add in a second one. Now, during the start up of the ballasts, you're talking about 330-450 Watts.

At the same time the alternator is trying to replenish the battery, from the starter running. --- shouldn't it be obvious that this is an issue?

Isn't it readily apparent that Kawasaki knows the limits of the charging system, when they use relays to keep the (1) headlight off, until the bike actually starts?!?.

I am constantly amazed at the denial.... 'this is a motorcycle specific kit', 'Lots of people run HIDs without problems' etc., etc.

There's a budget. <100W.

Live within it, or suffer the consequences.

./ 0.02

 

Yeah, that's why I said I wanted to fit the biggest battery in with the most power.

It's not so much the halo's as it us with the 50w HID's. Throw in the halos, the relay, Bazzaz Z-Fi and Z-AFM on top of 5hat, it all adds up

 

The Lithium based batteries are, in my opinion, hands down better than the lead-acid alternatives. Much lighter and they hold a charge forever.

Personally I run Shorai but there are other options if you are interested in going that route.

Before you simply replace the battery though, you may want to do a simple check with a multimeter to make sure that your charging system is doing its job.

 

^^ this. You need to know if you have damage the Stator, or the Reg/Rec, or both.

As far as I know, the charging parameters for the different chemical compositions are dissimilar -- I know on the LI batteries, there is a 'balance port' that should be used to ensure long life. I know the OEM charging system does not address this, and your present smart charger is not going to be compatible if you change chemistries....

 

I have had a Shorai standard version in the street/track 650 for over a year now and that bike has a PCV and Autotune. Actually, due to the smaller size, it gave me a place in the battery box to mount the electronics. The bike sits in a detached garage (in Nebraska) and I just left the battery in all winter with only a few rides and for first cold start of the year at 27F, it started no problem. I don't own a charger/tender.

I wish I had a longer period review for you but I am convinced.

 

I've got Ballistic batteries in all of my bikes and they have been great. I've got the 8 cell EVO 2 in my ZX6R. Much lighter than the stock battery.

When I was riding the bike all the time, I never put it on a charger. I've started putting it on a charger recently since I've stopped riding the street bikes mostly. I bought a couple of the Battery Tender Lithium chargers and they seem to work great.

022-0198LI

I've never balance charged any of my Ballistic batteries and they all work just fine. I've had the Ballistic in my ZX6R since Sept. 2013 now.

 

I'm leaning towards a Lurium battery. Do they even less, same or more than say the light weight AGM batteries? I'm not going to go with a Lead Acid battery, it's either going to be an AGAM (because I believe in AGM from being into car audio for so long and having Kinetic and XS batteries) or Lithium or some other better upgradeable technology. I just don't know which one will be best. I definitely want to lose weight, but need the most powerful battery I can fit in my OEM tray

 

Battery failure in only a year? I'd have the battery checked out first... Could be an underlying issue with your hids or charging system.

After 2.5 years and 27k miles later, my battery is still running like a champ.

 

I'll add that I have my '09 on the OEM battery, even after the R/R recall, and the stator failing. 34K, 5.5 years and no issues.

This is almost certainly not the fault of the battery; but it's a good excuse to go to something else.