Suggestions please: best replacement battery for 2007 Norge

[blackbuell]

Got the 2007 Norge home from Indiana yesterday; chilly but uneventful 165 mile ride back to KY. Immediately drained all 3 oils; was shocked to see bright green oil from CARC and gearbox; got me concerned. However, Guzzisteve put my mind at ease by telling me about Shockproof brand gear oil. The bike now has new oils in it. Will replace hydraulic fluid later today. Will also check valve clearances and install the new battery I bought yesterday.

Motor is strong; feels stronger than my 2009 did after 54,000 miles. I have read that shocks of 2007 Norges are weak, but I didn't notice any problem on the ride home. Maybe I will notice a difference from the 2009 after I load the bike with wife and gear. Tires are originals, but they weren't too nasty; will replace them come spring. Ordering a Throttlemeister and ram mount for GPS.

Bike has a few scratches; might get affected parts painted. Overall, I am happy with the bike so far.

Jon

[jdgretz]

Got the 2007 Norge home from Indiana yesterday; chilly but uneventful 165 mile ride back to KY. Immediately drained all 3 oils; was shocked to see bright green oil from CARC and gearbox; got me concerned. However, Guzzisteve put my mind at ease by telling me about Shockproof brand gear oil. The bike now has new oils in it. Will replace hydraulic fluid later today. Will also check valve clearances and install the new battery I bought yesterday.

Motor is strong; feels stronger than my 2009 did after 54,000 miles. I have read that shocks of 2007 Norges are weak, but I didn't notice any problem on the ride home. Maybe I will notice a difference from the 2009 after I load the bike with wife and gear. Tires are originals, but they weren't too nasty; will replace them come spring. Ordering a Throttlemeister and ram mount for GPS.

Bike has a few scratches; might get affected parts painted. Overall, I am happy with the bike so far.

Jon

The effectiveness of the stock shock is very dependent on how you ride, and where you ride.  The stock was fine for me around town and on the freeways.  Where it showed it's weakness  was when being somewhat aggressive in the canyons.  The front also wallowed a bit in the corners - especially those that were not smooth.  That being said, once I had Todd go through the suspension (HyperPro rear shock and front progressive springs with cartridge emulators) the bike became a totally different animal.  Where stock, it was a toss up as to it being me or the bike as the limiting factor in the twisties; once I improved the suspension, it was obvious that I am now the limiting factor.

Enjoy,

jdg

[Old Jock]

I had a LiFe Shorai in my Ducati 1098 for 3 years, it doesn't do a great deal of miles and it was fine. I replaced it when I thought it was going bad, it wasn't, when I got another LiFe for the Sfida 1100 (I had little option as mounting and space were restricted meaning that I required maximum charge density) it behaved he same way, with the charger going nuts.

Turned out the charging leads were bad, nothing noticeable and I'm very careful with leads. Only when I belled it out did I discover this, the thing was it would "Store" charge fine, but was freaking out when going to "Full" charge.

Shorai customer support is awesome and they sent me a Sentry for nothing, it's about the size of a fat credit card wallet and will give you the cell voltages, max-min, % charge etc: and will also balance the internal cells.

LiFe do work but are different, so have goods and bads.

So we know about low ambient temp issues causing failures to crank

Due to the low internal resistance they accept/reject charge very easily, a good thing (for starting lots of power) and bad thing (can fry reg/recs)

They require to be kept in a strict voltage range, ignore and they die (an AGM or lead acid are far more tolerant of abuse)

They require more maintenance, cell balancing and kept on a "Store" charge when emmmm.........stori ng. Although they will if left hold a charge far longer than an AGM

They are very light especially in comparison to an AGM.

They are a bit more finicky needing a special charger and IMHO a bit more fragile

Personally I think they are the future but for now I stick to AGM unless I really need something that requires maximum power density i.e. capacity & CCA for the footprint available. They are not the Devil's work and can be great it's all about horses & courses.

John