New battery

[cactusjack]

Wednesday night I was on my way to meet up with some VROC friends in Scottsdale and decided to take a roundabout way to get there to avoid rush hour freeway traffic through Chandler, Mesa and Scottsdale. It got dark along the way and I decided to stop and swap my sunglasses for some clear ones. I pulled over on this dark, deserted highway and was only off the bike for maybe a minute. When I tried to start the bike up, it didn't have enough juice to crank it. Long story short - after letting it sit about 15 or 20 minutes, it had rejuvenated itself enough that I could start it. It started just fine when I left to go home after we ate.

Since the battery is the original, I decided it was time to replace it. I went to Batteries Plus near where I work and bought a replacement. It is a XTAX20CH-BS AGM battery. I paid $89.99 for it and it comes with a 1 year free replacement.

The battery I replaced was an XTAX16-BS.

Replacing the battery wasn't difficult, messing with the battery post bolts and nuts ate a lot of time, though. Even though the batteries appeared to be the same size, I think the new one was slightly taller, because the hold down bar didn't want to sit right on top of it. I ended up removing the rubber pad on the bar and used a couple of lengths of duct tape to pad it.

When I had everything back together I cranked it up. It only spun about once and fired. Much faster than it has been. I guess when your battery gets weak over time, you don't realize it. Now that I think about it, it has been harder to start recently.....hmmm.