AZRider

I have learned a lot from this thread, and I am mainly posting just to share the great experience I have had with Odyssey batteries despite knowing none of this. I'm not saying that conditioning couldn't make it better, and I get that I can fit a PC680 in a California where the PC545 is trying to crank essentially the same engine in your LeManses. The first Odyssey got me from 2001 to 2010 without any maintenance of any kind, the second is still going strong with only a Battery Tender during the snow season. I replaced the first Odyssey as preventative caution because the original reg/rec failed just before I left Connecticut for an autumn rally near Gettysburg, PA. I failed to realize the importance that the charge light wasn't coming on, so I embarked on the trip. I rode to Gettysburg wearing an electric vest, short-tripped around the rally for two days before the charge got low enough that I needed a bumpstart. That prompted me to borrow a friend's newfangled iphone and google around and learn about the charging system, which led to the testing to find out that it was the Reg/Rec that was NFG. I put the battery on a charger for about 4 hours before I had to head for home, so I disconnected the low beam from the headlight and got home, where the battery still had enough juice to crank the starter vigorously. Over that winter, I got to thinking that for the past ten winters, the bike had sat in an unheated shed without a battery tender and still cranked strong each March when I was able to shovel a path through the snow to the driveway. So I ordered up a new battery and installed it right out of the box in the spring. Four and a half years later, I had moved to a house with a garage with electricity and I got the bike that would become the 1100S. That bike still had the giant OEM battery, which fit nicely in the dead lawn tractor, so it got a transfer. When I got far enough on the 1100S project to need a battery, I grabbed the 2001 PC680 out of the furnace room where it had sat in a box for three and a half years, put it on the Battery Tender overnight, and it started the bike in the morning. I used it in the 1100S for a month, but it seemed weak despite a few overnight Battery Tender charges, so I bought a new one and put the 2001 back on a shelf where it sits now. I am curious to try the techniques I have learned and see if that battery comes back up to snuff.

I have had a Ducati regulator/rectifier from EME on my CaliforniaEV for the last six years/60K miles. It was identical to the OEM part, right down to the Ducati logo and info on the stickers. I have had Odyssey batteries in that bike since I bought it in 2001. No problems that I can trace to the battery, since I got about 90K miles out of the Ducati/Odyssey combo before the original reg/rec failed.