The redundant 350 battery options question

[Littlebabyjosh]

I have a 72 honda cb350 twin and I'm replacing the carbs soon and want to eliminate the battery tray where it sits in the stock area. I'm running kickstart only, head and taillight and that's all. No blinkers, gauges, etc.

I want to hide the battery somewhere under the seat where it won't throw my weight off, specifically a smaller battery but I can't seem to find a straight topic I can relate to.

I know this questions been asked many times, but haven't found one with kickstart only and minimal electronics, and if I did no solid info on what battery they used that worked.

I noticed 4 cell batteries by ballistic and the anti gravity, but would I need to upgrade any electronics otherwise? And how does charging work with these smaller batteries, do they charge up when running the bike or eventually die out after riding a couple hours?

Sorry for the question definitely been asked but I searched high and low and just couldn't find the right answer that pertains to me. Thanks in advance.

 

[SONICJK]

Yes you'll want the antigravity or ballistic 4 cell
Something around 4-5AH should be fine, just don't leave the bike not running with the headlight on and careful not to idle too long.

You will need a regulator/rectifier upgrade to keep the battery healthy.
Middle top product on this page
http://www.sparckmoto.com/Products

 

[Littlebabyjosh]

Thanks I appreciate it greatly and the regulator/rectifier was what I was most unsure of, whether it would be necessary or not to upgrade. All I needed to know.

 

[SONICJK]

100% necessary.
And for 25 bucks a no-brainer ;D

 

[Bennett]

Thanks for that link. That helps me out a lot too.

 

[Littlebabyjosh]

I actually checked that guy/company out and planned on ordering a new, stripped down harness from him so that all works out.

I apologize for not doing as much battery research as I should have but the ballistic 4 cell battery and the sparck r/r will work out ok? The whole amperage etc things gets confusing and I don't want anything or anybody catching on fire haha. Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

 

[SONICJK]

Yeah should be fine.
Talk to Matt (Sonreir on here) he is "the sparckmoto guy" he can tell you everything you need to know.

 

[Littlebabyjosh]

I actually pm'd him before I posted this to ask about harnesses so I'll drop him another question. I'd rather be annoying than uneducated.

 

[Sonreir]

If you're upgrading from a lead acid flooded cell battery, you're definitely going to want a new R/R.

The old regulator on the Honda twins (and most vintage bikes, for that matter) was more of a back-up system to the battery. Many of the smaller displacement and single cylinder bikes didn't use a regulator at all. When you apply too much voltage to a system with a flooded cell lead acid battery, the battery continues to absorb the extra power and uses it to boil off the electrolyte.

While that's fine for 1970s battery technology, today's batteries aren't so forgiving. AGM, sealed, gel, LI-ION and the like are "maintenance free". There's no electrolyte to top up.

So what happens if you run a new battery in an old system? It dies. Sometimes the death is slow and painful and sometimes it's quick and spectacular.

AGM is fairly sturdy for a maintenance free battery, but SLAs and gel batteries are less so. LI-ION is the pickiest of the bunch. Anything over 14.7V on LI-ION will start to degrade the internal copper electrodes (even better to keep it under 14.5V). They literally dissolve. At 9,000 RPM, it's still considered within spec to have 17V on an old Honda system.