I’m not after specific recommendations, but does anybody know whether I’m right in thinking that the charging system on the above machine is unsuitable for the latest fibre matting AGM versions, as I’m sure I’ve read a post somewhere stating that they are not?! Thanks for your help
I’m the scaremonger. You can stick an AGM in and it will work, and you may even be 100% happy as many are. But, the Oilhead won’t fully charge it—unless your trips are always on the long side—because its charging voltage is too low. It’ll last longer and start your bike better if you keep it fully charged.
I’ve owned two different 1150s, the first was an RT which I upgraded to a PC680. I made a lot of short trips while I was testing the Innovate LC-1/2 and AF-XIED. I recharged it with a Battery Tender Jr. and in less than a year I’d lost 20% of the battery’s capacity and starting was hard.
The fix from Odyssey was to fully discharge the battery 4-5 times and fully recharge it with a proper charger after each discharge. After that I modified the alternator and bought a charger from this list:
http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/ODYSSEY_approved_12V_chargers.pdf. The PC680 is now 7 years old and good as new.
The second bike is an R1150GS. I bought it with a 3-4 year old PC680. No problems, but the battery was never fully charged either. I ran it through the discharge cycles, modified the alternator and it’s now 5-6 years old and good as new too.
Here’s the link to the modification:
http://bmwsporttouring.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=861163#Post861163.
The other option is to always use an AGM charger after you ride, from the odyssey list. Or, as most do, you can just not worry about it and replace the battery when it fails, and accept that motorcycle batteries just don’t seem to last that long.