Installing lithium battery

Hey all, I just picked up a lithium battery from my local Honda dealer and I’m on my way home (in my topless cage - the original battery in my VFR just died ). I’d like to install it tonight if I have time - how long should it take? I think there’s instructions in the owner’s manual, right? Anything to watch out for? Do I just remove the seat or is there more to it? Here’s the battery I got, it’s just under 1 kg!

https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/shorai-lithium-battery-lfx18a1-bs12

 

On the 5&6 gens it’s about a 5 minute job. Not sure on the 8 Gen though. With the former, remove the seat, either lift up/remove the battery cover, and loosen the bolts to the positive and negative leads and swap out battery. The only other thing you might have to deal with is placing some spacer material in between the battery and battery tray, as most lithium batteries are smaller in size.

 

Wow !!! At that price, it sould install itself.

 

Thanks - I’m gonna wait til tomorrow afternoon to do the install. The battery came with some spacer material so that shouldn't be a problem. Also came with some nice stickers.

LOL - I agree. I think if I had my bike there they might have installed it for free. They matched and beat the Revzilla price by a dollar to $169.95 - hopefully I didn’t get ripped off too badly

 

Battery dead already EEK. Mines still going strong. Lift seat, pull cover, Neg lead off first, then Pos, remove old battery , insert new battery, Pos lead then Neg.

Did you also purchase a Li battery charger too as they don't work with conventional ones.

Oh yeah you will probably need to charge before use, but it will say so on instruction leaflet.​

 

Installed a Li on my dirt bikes - special trickle charger and you are good to go. I was told to let give it about 10 seconds between key on and pressing the start button - something about letting it build charge, anyways...... I just do it that way and never had any issues, love the few lbs saved overall as well. For enduro riding it was a real difference, for our little piggy the VFR - may not even be able to tell. We will wait for your YOUTUBE tutorial Gator!!

 

I’m happy to report that the Albinogator is back up and running with a fresh lithium battery. The new battery cuts 5.7 pounds (7.9 old minus 2.2 new) and the bike feels noticeably more flickable/tossable IMO - but it could just be pyschological Between the exhaust, tail tidy, and battery, I’ve now cut 13.7 pounds off the bike. Here’s a vid:

 

So far I’m happy with my Shorai too. The long story is that it was originally on my 6 Gen and when my Stator/RR failure happened, it killed the battery dead. I had thought that I killed it for good but a friend who helped me took the battery back to her place and her husband put it on a charger (I thought he said it was a standard battery charger) and when I got it back I put it on my 5 Gen. I ran it without a tender for a few months and then had my low side accident, so it was going to be out of commission for a while, I decided to get the Shorai charger for it while it sat, as all I has was a standard type battery tender.

The Shorai charger has a special multi-pin connector that plugs into a special port on the battery, which is supposed to allow it to monitor and charge the individual cells, versus a “global” charging method. Additionally, it has a store mode which will monitor and keep the battery at a full charge, so once I’m ready to roll, it’ll be good to go. I would imagine the the normal charge mode with the multi-pin connector would allow for deeper and faster charge but I would be speculating there.

A fellow 6 Gen VFR owner had his Shorai go dead on him due to the infamous Stator/RR issue as well, so I loaned him my charger to bring it back to life. He’s all good to go now. Since I don’t have my 5 Gen registered for street use at the moment, it usually sits until I get to use the track, so for the most part it sits with the charger in store mode. I was very surprised that the battery was salvageable, as I was under the impression that when you drain a Lithium battery below a certain threshold, it was gone for good. Either my understanding of Lithium batteries is incorrect or both his and my batteries didn’t go below that threshold. I’m hoping the situation never happens again and the Shorai will last it’s full potential life.