Motobatt

[Duncan Grimmond]

Has anyone here bought Motobatt batteries for cars/bikes? I have one on the Brookands (BMW 1000)and it seemed to be a good buy so I got one for the limper(BMW 850) and my Velocette too. Today neither of the car batteries would turn the motor enough to start. The Brooklands had been on a trickle charge last week and the limper on a trickle charge overnight. Neither had enough oomph to turn the engine. Any views? Any other experience of Motobatt?

[Geoff Ryall-Harvey]

I've got one in the Avion. Works fine. The big issue with any AGM battery is that you MUST use a smart charger. A regular charger will kill them overnight.

[Duncan Grimmond]

So does that mean I've goosed them both?

[Geoff Ryall-Harvey]

Unfortunately you probably have. Some of the smart chargers have a recovery mode that can bring them back - but didn't work for the £250 Odessey battery in the hot rod.

[hutchii]

Duncan,
I know nothing about the rights and wrongs related to AGM batteries but, having read your post (and recently obtaining an Odyssey battery of unknown condition for my in build special) I searched the net for how to charge them and found a number of entries. One entry from a HOT ROD magazine article went into detail about how to recover a dead AGM.
Sorry but I don't know how to provide a link to the article here, but a Google search (as I did) should find it for you.
Touch wood, at the moment my battery seems healthy.
Good luck!

[Paul Narramore]

I have fitted a Motobatt battery to my restored BMW R100GS-Paris Dakar and when not riding it, the bike is connected to an Optimate III 'smart' charger. Cheaper than the similar Odyssey with lots more oomph than the standard battery.