LIthium Ion Battery Question - I Have a Bizzare Situation

EllenGtrGrl

Active member
For starters, there's nothing wrong with the Antigravity Lithium Ion Battery I installed in my FTR1200 - it starts reliably (actually better that the old lead acid Yuasa battery ever did IMO). Nonetheless, I do have a question, due to a bizarre situation I had thrown in my lap this week.

A little backstory - I live in an apartment building. There are 3 different parking options:

1. Park in the outside lot (at no extra charge).

2. Opt for the underground parking lot - it's located in the apartment building's basement, and is heated in the winter. It also has a couple of water hose stations where you can wash your car or motorcycle (there is a sewer drain in the floor for the water that accumulates). The cost is $35/month.

3. Opt for one of the several external garage spaces located outside for an additional monthly cost (higher than the underground parking option - one of these garage spaces, is where the other motorcyclist in the apartment building parks his 2 Harleys).

Having learned the hard way in the 80s (when I had a Honda XL250R, while attending the University of Wisconsin for Engineering Degree #1) , that keeping motorcycles parked in an outdoor parking lot long term is NOT good for them (doing so, messed up the electrical system of my Honda, and basically rusted out the silencer [it literally blew out the end while I was out for a ride]). I park in the underground parking lot, keeping my FTR parked in front of my car (next to the building wall), when it is not being used.

My apartment building was built in the 70s, and as a result, the drainage tile under the building foundation is biting the dust (it is starting to negatively affect the building foundation, and basement walls). Therefore, I was informed on Friday, that for the next month and a half (starting on July 19) construction work is being done on the building. I found out yesterday, that the construction work is for replacing/repairing the drainage tile. Outside of the building, a trench needs to be dug around the building to access the old drainage tile, and fix any foundation, and basement wall damage. Here's the kicker - the same thing needs to be done on the indoors/basement side of the building. This will entail tearing out the concrete in the garage floor, next the basement wall, along with the resot of the basement wall in the entire building to access the drainage tile. As a result I not only had to pull all of my junk out of my locked storage space (which is located next to the basement wall), and move it to a temporary, locked storage area yesterday (ugh!), but all of the vehicles that are parked in the underground garage have to stay out of the garage until possibly as long as Aug. 31, and park outside. This includes my car and of course, my FTR1200.

Um, NO, that's not happening. I don't want to deal with weather related damage (especially if we have severe weather) to my FTR1200, and I find the risk of theft unacceptable. So, I will have to find some indoor storage for my FTR1200. I'm contacting the dealer I bought it from today, to see if they could possibly offer me in-season storage (for a fee of course) for the next month and a half. There is also the possibility (though the apartment building managers [located in the office suite on the north end of the basement - the suite is also used to run the family machine tool sales & service business] have been a bit vague about it - they said they'll let me know if there are any on-site "out of the weather" storage options; I'm giving them a follow-up call today about it, from work). As a result, my FTR will be unusable by me for the next month and a half. Either way, I have to find storage for the FTR a.s.a.p.

OK, my question - I know that lithium ion batteries usually have built-in charge control circuitry, to prevent over charging, and excessive battery drain, but with my FTR being out of comission for the next month and a half, and with no power access to hook up a battery tender to it. Would it be advisable for me to disconnect my litium ion battery, to prevent it from going dead?
 
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cupcake_mike

Active member
I would pull the battery for piece of mind if I knew for sure my bike wouldn't be used for a couple months, takes about 5 min to do. Also a good anti-theft measure :)

Are you friendly with the other motorcyclist with the garage space? Maybe bring him a case of beer to stuff your ftr in there, then you can easily continue to ride. A normal car-sized garage space should easily support 3 motorcycles (unless he has other stuff in there, too).
 

EllenGtrGrl

Active member
I would pull the battery for piece of mind if I knew for sure my bike wouldn't be used for a couple months, takes about 5 min to do. Also a good anti-theft measure :)

Are you friendly with the other motorcyclist with the garage space? Maybe bring him a case of beer to stuff your ftr in there, then you can easily continue to ride. A normal car-sized garage space should easily support 3 motorcycles (unless he has other stuff in there, too).
Unfortunately, the other motorcyclist's garage space is pretty much taken up by the 2, Harleys, the lift he used to work on them, and his tools (at times, it seems like he spends more time wrenching, and polishing his Harleys, than he does riding them), so that's a no go.
 

EllenGtrGrl

Active member
Just disconnect the cables and put the cover back on.
Yeah, I know about doing that (it's what I do that when I put the FTR in storage for the winter months) - I just wanted to know if I would be ble to get away with not having to do it for the month and half the FTR will be out of service.
 

K9F

Well-known member
Better to do the wise and prudent thing than 'take a chance' surely? Take you a damn sight less time to disconnect than find somewhere to charge it in your newly concreted garage with no electrical outlets after languishing for 6 long weeks.
 

mark.lb

Well-known member
I would pull the battery. Take it inside your apartment and leave it on a NOCO genius charger. I would do this for the winter months as well. (I believe you live in Milwaukee.)
 

kiwi dave

Active member
One issue with lithium ion batteries is they tend to let you down when trying to start in cold mornings. The trick is to turn the headlight on for a couple of minutes to warm up the battery before trying to start it. Unfortunately, most modern bikes don't allow the headlight to come on until the motor is running, creating a Catch-22 situation.

That new re-start technology looks interesting, but probably expensive. An alternative might be to just have a Motobatt Jump Starter (www.motobatt.com) as a back up for those winter months.
 
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