The Details
-Lightest battery on the market
-Environmentally friendly
-No charging required for up to a year
Price: from $129.99
Website: shoraipower.com
Bike makers spend millions of dollars making every component of a sportbike as light as possible. Then the entire package is finished off with a bulky ten-pound block of lead under the seat-the battery.
You won't get far without one, of course. Modern fuel injection and engine management systems need a lot of juice, but why do bikes have to hump around lead while laptops and cell phones use batteries that last and are light? Cost is one reason: lead-acid batteries are a cheap, easy answer for manufacturers. They're also pretty forgiving and cope well with the heavy current draws for starter motors.
But now you can dump the lead and replace it with a high-tech lithium battery that'll save a heap of weight with virtually no loss in performance. A new firm on the scene, Shorai Power, has released a new range of specially-designed lithium batteries that slip right into your bike. Unlike some other home-brewed setups you might have seen recently, these units aren't just cobbled together from surplus cordless tool rechargeable cells. Shorai batteries use specially-made rectangular-section cells so they fit much better than the cylindrical cells used in a cordless drill. And since the power requirements of a motorcycle are pretty different from a home appliance, the Shorai units are designed to suit.
Best of all, you can choose from a range of battery options, saving cash and weight appropriately. If you run a race bike or a trackday toy and only need enough juice for a day at the circuit, you can save even more weight by fitting a super-light unit.
Happy to plug your daily ride into a trickle charger on weekends? Then there's a halfway house option with more electrical energy inside (and a little more weight) at a slightly higher price. But if you're an Iron Butt fanatic with electric grips and two sat-navs, Shorai will supply a super-capacity unit with extra capacity for a few more greenbacks.
As an example, the three options for a Triumph Speed Triple come in at $109.95 for the 'Race' unit, $129.95 for the 'Standard' and $153.95 for the 'Duration' option. The Standard unit has the same 12Ah rating as the stock battery and weighs seven pounds less. The Race unit holds 9Ah and is nearly eight pounds lighter, while the Duration battery has a 14Ah rating and is over six pounds lighter. Each one offers a significant weight savings.
Kevin Riley of Shorai said, "Our units give riders the chance to radically improve their bike's overall performance while increasing reliability and reducing maintenance."
Big claims for sure, but if Shorai's performance truly lives up to its claims then we're looking at one of the most significant breakthroughs in motorcycle technology since fuel injection.