• Welcome to the Indian FTR 1200 Forums. Member registration disables ads and allows you to post and share. Register Here.

Battery woes SOLVED!

T

Tyroma77

New member
Joined
Apr 22, 2025
Messages
22
Location
Norfolk County, Ontario
Hey Gang...

You may recall that I purchased a new 2024 FTR a few weeks backs. Had some trouble with colds starts...the bike would attempt to start 2 or 3 times before actually staring. Sometimes once started, it would stumble and stall. Through my research in the forum and on the factory Yuasa battery, I have determined that it was the problem. While I bought the bike new, it was sitting in the dealership showroom since last spring. So, I figure they PDI'd it at that time, dropped the battery into it, and didn't do anything with it since then.

Anyhoo, I found a lot of positive reviews of the NOCO Lithium NLP14 battery. I also recall that installing a lithium battery COMPLETELY cured my Harley Pan America of all of it's electric gremlins. I purchased the NOCO. It arrived fully charged, has slick multi-position contacts, a stack of spacers (...because it's HALF the height of the factory battery...) and even the allen key for the screws!

I installed the NOCO with two spacers, replaced the cover, hit the start button and BAM! Fired right up! Battery display showed 12.3v with key on, 14.1v while running. Rode the bike to work this morning, and there were no issues with cold start, choppy idle or stalling.

The battery was $250 CAD shipped from Amazon. The replacement Yuasa would have been $202 CAD from the dealership. I recommend the NOCO if you are having battery/electrical grief.
 
Ah Lithium.....it ticks the boxes, i do like motobatt as its 560ca 102.4Wh and has a built in voltage protection ( a must for ZRX owners) If this was 1950s there would be Lithium Man......lighter but more powerful
 
Erskimo said:
Ah Lithium.....it ticks the boxes, i do like motobatt as its 560ca 102.4Wh and has a built in voltage protection ( a must for ZRX owners) If this was 1950s there would be Lithium Man......lighter but more powerful
Click to expand...

Ha! Yes! The cranking amps are impressive as well. The Yuasa is 240ca whereas the NOCO is 500ca. Make a big difference, especially during cold starts. I don't know Motobatt, but we are REALLY far apart geographically.
 
I was thinking about the NOCO (I love my NOCO chargers) as well but looking at it on Amazon doesn't give the warm fuzzies...
NOCO.webp
 
MilwDave said:
But the failure rate is higher on lithium. Particularly early failures.
Click to expand...
Is it though? There are more posts on here about oem failures than lithium, I’ve had two oem batteries fail and only one lithium, which had nothing to do with the fact it was a lithium, it was a stupid restart feature. So far I’m going with lithium.
 
Don't you guys have your bikes on a batter tender? When I picked up my '24 a couple of weeks ago, I forgot to ask if they'd run a lead for a tender, but when I got home I was pleasantly surprised to find out that one is run from the factory. Also, since my battery was dead the day before I picked it up, the folks at the dealership were nice enough to replace it with a Li-ion instead of the AGM one. Now two of my bikes have Li-ion batteries and one has AGM, and each has their own separate tender set to the battery type.
 
irsh said:
I was thinking about the NOCO (I love my NOCO chargers) as well but looking at it on Amazon doesn't give the warm fuzzies...
View attachment 9774
Click to expand...
Yeah...I saw a few complaints too, but with a 4.1 rating with 3495 reviews, I would say that the negatives are outnumbered by the satisfied buyers. The main complaint seemed to relate to cold temperature performance - ie. guys putting them in snowmobiles and quads.
 
FourThreeTwo said:
Don't you guys have your bikes on a batter tender? When I picked up my '24 a couple of weeks ago, I forgot to ask if they'd run a lead for a tender, but when I got home I was pleasantly surprised to find out that one is run from the factory. Also, since my battery was dead the day before I picked it up, the folks at the dealership were nice enough to replace it with a Li-ion instead of the AGM one. Now two of my bikes have Li-ion batteries and one has AGM, and each has their own separate tender set to the battery type.
Click to expand...
For us who Like Noco they do a nice little plug that will plug into the supplied lead
 
If I don’t ride mine for two weeks, it generally won’t start without being on a tender. If I ride it every weekend it cranks right up.
I replaced the factory battery in my 19. Can’t say I would be opposed to giving a lithium a try but the factory battery lasted me three years so I just swapped in another.
 
ferraiolo1 said:
Is it though? There are more posts on here about oem failures than lithium, I’ve had two oem batteries fail and only one lithium, which had nothing to do with the fact it was a lithium, it was a stupid restart feature. So far I’m going with lithium.
Click to expand...
I’ve had three lithium batteries fail. All three were shipped back and replaced under warranty. One was the warranty replacement that arrived DOA.
I may be the most unlucky lithium battery buyer in the world.
I have a new in the box NOCO lithium battery for an FTR. If anyone wants to take it of my hands, make an offer.
 
Dave probably best to look twice before leaving your driveway id be thinking, as your a bit thin on good luck.....you seem to have enough bad luck though.
I use to use SSB (its been in the commuter ZX12r for 6 years) and now i prefer Motobatt, i never had an issue with SSB i just like the extra features that come in the Motobatt
 
Yeah you should just throw your new noco away since you touched it. As clearly you have bad luck. Wouldn’t want to put that bad luck on anyone else.
 
Erskimo said:
Dave probably best to look twice before leaving your driveway id be thinking, as your a bit thin on good luck.....you seem to have enough bad luck though.
I use to use SSB (its been in the commuter ZX12r for 6 years) and now i prefer Motobatt, i never had an issue with SSB i just like the extra features that come in the Motobatt
Click to expand...
I have all of my bikes on the NOCO chargers, four and a two bank units. The chargers work great and I keep all my bikes on them when not in use.
I’m pretty good about maintaining my batteries. The Optima batteries in my boat lasted eight years using an onboard charger.
I don’t have any issues with AGM batteries and typically get 4-6 years out of them.
What’s crazy is both Shorai and NOCO (twice) tested the returned batteries and reported back that they suffered internal systems management failures.
 
Last edited:
Yeah yusa and other batteries can do the same. It’s all the luck of the draw. My wifes beta Dirtbike has a cheap firepower lithium battery in it that lives in a shed that’s never on a tender and starts first time every time 5 years later.

My wifes oem yusa ftr battery was also bad after two months. Her noco has been perfect for over 2 years. And rarely on a tender.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top