Shorai Lithium Motorcycle Battery FAQs

8 July 2019 | Tom

Lithium motorcycle batteries are becoming increasingly popular - but they are not necessarily the answer to all your prayers - here are a few commmon queries that come up to help you decide if a Shorai Lithium motorcycle battery is right for you.

What are the advantages of Lithium batteries?

Lithium batteries offer two significant advantages over conventional lead acid batteries - firstly they are much lighter and secondly they are far more efficient so can deliver far greater cranking power to start your bike. You should be aware however that while they have improved starting performance, they have lower capacity than a lead acid battery and hence are not suitable for applications that require significant battery capacity.

What type of charger should I use?

You should always use a Lithium optimised charger, such as the Optimate Lithium 0.8 or the CTEK LithiumXS - do not use conventional charger/maintainers designed for conventional lead acid batteries as these can cause serious damage to your battery. Continuous output trickle chargers can be used but should be disconnected once the battery is fully charged.

Can I use a Lithium battery on any motorbike?

Lithium batteries are actually far more sensitive to overcharging than conventional lead acid batteries and therefore are best not be used with older bikes with mechanical voltage regulators as you risk overcharging and damaging the battery. They should only be used on newer bikes with sophisticated modern charging systems - if you unsure please contact us for advice.

Why do you quote a battery capacity and a lead acid equivalent capacity?

The lead acid equivalent figure is purely quoted for convenience and is an indication of the capacity of lead acid battery it would be suitable to replace. For example an LFX14L2-BS12 has a capacity of 4.4Ah but gives the performance of a 14Ah lead acid battery.

What do the model numbers signify?

A typical Shorai part number would be LFX14L2-BS12 / so this breaks down as LFX xx y z - BS vv

xx is the lead equivalent capacity in Ah
y indicates the terminal position, A for (+) on the left hand side and L for (+) on the right hand side
z indicates the case size - numbered from 1 to 6
vv is the voltage - 6V or 12V