Post Your New Mods Here

So the latest Mod is to fit a Lithium battery. The 6yr old original battery was affecting starting and idling and the weight saving attracted me (yes I know I'll barely feel it but every little helps).

I went for German brand JMT (sold through Two Tyres) rather than some unknown Chinese thing from eBay: I don't want the garage to go up in flames.

Whilst physically its width and depth are the same as the battery it replaces, its height is smaller, but this is made up for with the supplied foam spacers. But the fitting challenges didn't stop there.

One being the different shaped +ve and _ve terminals and the other being that the profile of the top surface of the battery doesn't match the original Yuasa.



Fitting photos follow:-

As the above photo shows the JMT terminals are much larger than the Yuasa's, so Triumph's +ve lead insulator was never going to properly protect the +ve terminal from accidental shorts to ground.

Then I had an idea; combine the Triumph insulator with the JMT shipping insulator. The idea being to make a flap the size of the +ve lead securing screw in the JMT insulator,





Put the battery in the bike with the JMT insulator in place, lift the flap, secure the +ve lead to the battery, slide the insulator that Triumph fitted to the +ve lead back into place making sure to tuck the flap cut into the JMT insulator up into Triumph's insulator, thus covering the whole of the positive terminal with the Triumph cable and insulator holding the JMT insulator in place.




Now the only problem is that the plastic "pressure spreader" that the battery securing strap rests on doesn't conform to the profile of the new JMT battery between the +ve and -ve terminals. It holds the battery securely enough but obscures the test button and voltage display, I had thought of ditching it but it holds the under-seat USB connector.

JMT's limited instructions warn against holding the test button for any length of time so careful manoeuvring of the strap and "pressure spreader" eps it clear of the test button and in all honesty how often am I going to press the button to see what the stored voltage is? Its going to live on a battery tender when not in use anyway.



So having fitted it will the bike start?

Despite my MOD electronics training, I'm always nervous when testing electrics that I've worked on. Multiple visual checks later I turn the key, everything wakes up as it should. Clutch in press the starter and the bike positively roars into life and settles into a very comfortable tick-over.

Thank goodness the reluctance to start and the poor tick-over were due to nothing more than a failing battery.