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Best battery for cold start?
Posted: Mon May 29, 2023 8:40 pm
by jhorgan24
My bike tends to be a real pain to start in the cold weather. Once it gets below 60 I need to plan at least 10 minutes to convince the bike to eventually turn over. Usually this involves messing with the choke until I finally manage to get it to go.
So with that in mind, I'm replacing my battery and I'm curious if I can get a higher quality battery that might help it start better. Right now I'm using a sigmastek battery which generally works fine, Sears says that its 220 CCA. Seems like most people on the forum like Motobatt or Scorpion which seem reasonable enough in price to get. Been considering the 507 CCA scorpion but at 200 bucks a battery I need to do some double checking to see if it'll actually solve my problem or if I'll be going on a wild goose chase.
Old battery link:
https://www.sears.com/sigmastek-stx16-b ... A048661912
So what do you guys think? Is it worth going for a better battery and do you think that'll solve my cold start problem or should I start looking at other solutions?
Re: Best battery for cold start?
Posted: Mon May 29, 2023 9:08 pm
by sgtcall
jhorgan24 wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 8:40 pm
My bike tends to be a real pain to start in the cold weather. Once it gets below 60 I need to plan at least 10 minutes to convince the bike to eventually turn over. Usually this involves messing with the choke until I finally manage to get it to go.
So with that in mind, I'm replacing my battery and I'm curious if I can get a higher quality battery that might help it start better. Right now I'm using a sigmastek battery which generally works fine, Sears says that its 220 CCA. Seems like most people on the forum like Motobatt or Scorpion which seem reasonable enough in price to get. Been considering the 507 CCA scorpion but at 200 bucks a battery I need to do some double checking to see if it'll actually solve my problem or if I'll be going on a wild goose chase.
Old battery link:
https://www.sears.com/sigmastek-stx16-b ... A048661912
So what do you guys think? Is it worth going for a better battery and do you think that'll solve my cold start problem or should I start looking at other solutions?
I had the Scorpion in my 1400 and it worked great for 6 years. You need to make sure the one you get will fit in the battery box.
Re: Best battery for cold start?
Posted: Tue May 30, 2023 12:23 am
by Lechy
Buy a cheap hair drier and blow some warm air into the intakes whilst cranking.
Re: Best battery for cold start?
Posted: Tue May 30, 2023 5:13 am
by Designer
sgtcall wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 9:08 pm
I had the Scorpion in my 1400 and it worked great for 6 years. You need to make sure the one you get will fit in the battery box.
I did a comparison of the available batteries for the 1400 and 800 in another Thread.
Perhaps this will be a good starting point for you, jhorgan24;
Designer wrote: ↑Wed May 24, 2023 1:00 pm
navigator wrote: ↑Wed May 24, 2023 11:25 am
That battery is for the 1400, Prolly won't fit the 800 box.The lead acid battery for the 800 is YB16B-A1. But I recommend the Motobatt AGM as a replacement.
I did some research and this is what I found;
The Yuasa YB16B-A1 (listed as for the 800) is indeed a conventional battery,...needing maintenance. ( Boo-Hoo)
I checked the dimensions and they are 160mm x 90mm x 161mm
And the YTX16-BS-1 ( listed for the 1400) has smaller dimensions...... they are 150mm x 87mm x 161mm.
Thus the AGM 1400 battery will indeed fit the 800!
You would probably need to slip in some thin fillers to keep the battery nicely in place,...but,...it will fit.
Now that did surprise me.
BTW,....why I am using the No-maintenance AGM Yuasa Battery ( that we can fill ourselves) is because both I and my friend (who rides a 1500) have had some longevity problems with the Mototbatt AGM.
Re: Best battery for cold start?
Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:33 am
by jhorgan24
Thanks for the suggestions all. Decided to go with the Scorpion, its only a few buck more than the battery I usually buy and claims to have an extra 10 CCA. Probably won't make a difference in terms of starting in the cold but I'll give it a shot.
Any other suggestions for making it easier to start in the cold? I know my carbs are wildly out of sync so I'm going to sync those when I put the battery in. I just took them off and cleaned them last week too. I'm hoping that's the magic bullet to making it easier to start.
Re: Best battery for cold start?
Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:38 am
by Herb
When you adjust the sync, open the idle jets a little bit. Gives it a little more gas for starting. My 1400 has the idle jets opened to about 2 1/4 turns out, stock setting is less than 2 turns on it.
I also found that setting the plug gap at the bottom of the range works better.
Re: Best battery for cold start?
Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:53 am
by sgtcall
Before you start it put it in 1st gear, release the clutch and rock it back and forth 2 or 3 times. Then press the start button to prime it. After it is primed put it in neutral and start it as normal.