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Gel vrs sealed maintenance free battery? Gel vrs sealed maintenance free battery?
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Photo by Sean Howman, The Pamir highway in an unseasonably cold late October, Tajikistan

I haven't been everywhere...
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Photo by Sean Howman,
The Pamir highway in an unseasonably
cold late October, Tajikistan



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  #1  
Old 27 Apr 2009
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Gel vrs sealed maintenance free battery?
So I need (want, as I think rec/regulator issues has damaged it) a new battery for my Africa Twin (RD07a 2000).. The standard battery is a YTX14-BS, these are sealed maintenance free units, and there is a 1001 options as to what company makes them.

BUT I always hear amazing things about the new gel batteries. So far I can only find two brands (Sprint and DynaVolt gel nano) neither of which i have heard of (this in itself does not mean much as I could only name about 3 brands of bike battery anyway).

Sorry enough rambling

CONTEXT: We are going on a ~two year trip, in Africa and Central / South America so I would like to fit and forget

My questions are:
Does any one use Gel battery?
Are they worth it?
Can anyone suggest a gel battery for my bike?

Cheers
Xander
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Old 28 Apr 2009
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I use an odyssey gel battery in my boss hoss and have had no problems. I have heard that when they die they go quickly but have never had any first hand knowledge of any doing that. You may want to check into that a bit.
Bill
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Old 28 Apr 2009
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good thing about gel batteries is they do not leak if your bike is laid on its side for any length of time.
that in itself is worth the reason to buy one, well I think so anyway.
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Old 28 Apr 2009
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I went to the Odyssey battery site to see what type of batteries they are.
See the quote below.
"The Odyssey battery ingeniously uses absorbed glass mat (AGM)"
They are not gell batteries.
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  #5  
Old 28 Apr 2009
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On Yuasa site there are 2 helpful documents available for download: Yuasa Technical Manual and 2009 Yuasa Battery Specifications & Applications.
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Old 28 Apr 2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by buyarbi View Post
I have heard that when they die they go quickly but have never had any first hand knowledge of any doing that.
Yes I have seen it once on a friends bike. There was simply no way to get the bike running, would have been a disaster if he had been alone on a remote spot.
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Old 28 Apr 2009
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Before making a decision on the battery, read up on how a battery works...and why some battery types are better than others...depending on the application.

Just as there is no perfect bike for an overland trip, except maybe the K75 of course, there is no perfect battery...despite the marketing noise.

I found the explanation below helpful in making my recent battery choice.

Battery Tech
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Old 11 May 2009
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Our company sells a few thousand batteries (sealed lead acid and gel) per month for use with electronic security products. Different size from a bikes battery - 7ah. However a battery is a battery.
From my experience, the gel batteries are more expensive than the lead acid ones. Therefore are purchased in lesser amounts. The benefit of the gel battery is that is can be used in any position - where the lead acid must remain upright. A battery should never be allowed to discharge below 10V - a low battery cut out can be used to prevent this. Inexpesive part that will greatly improve battery life cycle.
The gel batteries handle low volt discharge better.
Gel batteries are said to be safer to the environment.
The gel batteries are stronger than the lead acid batteries and last longer in our industry.
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