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My falco currently has a Bosch fitted that I put on around January last year, it's let me down quite a few times, most likely due to the alarm on my bike but also due to the fact that although I do have an optimate it rarely gets used as my garage has no power an to run th optimat I have to use an extension for through my front door and this has not really been a practical option with the rain and snow we've been having.

I would like to change the Bosch for something a little peppier, I have been looking a motobatt, but I know some have used an alternative to the standard YTX 14BS.

So what does the collective ridersite forum wisdom reccomend?

May I suggest that you invest in a solar panel trickle charger

Can't remember the number but I use a griff approved model from aprilia performance - I rate it though it is shorter than standard.... Folded card board sorted that out

Use some cable ties around the battery to help pull it out ;)

control_67 wrote: an alternative to the standard YTX 14BS.

YTZ 14S.

Is there no possibility of installing a permanent power supply to your garage? Or, at least an external socket on the house wall?

Unfortunately the garage is quite a ways from my flat, probably a couple of hundred yards and is a rental property so no chance fo getting power in. I had thought about the solar charger, I could mount it on the garage roof and run the cables in. How well do they work given the summer we had last year and the weather since?

Better than nothing - I ran one for a year or so

I use one all the time, newer generation solar stuff only needs light rather than direct sunlight.
Mine was a tenner from Maplins, 1.5 W, 17,5 V max,
built in blocking diode to prevent reverse charging from battery to panel at night ( it says so on the box )
also reverse polarity protection
product code L58BF if you want to look at one online.
£10 well spent !

I use 2 of the 2.4w maplins ones in parallel (about £15 each). The last couple of weeks these have happily kept my battery at 12.7v I even take them off for 3 days a week to charge up my spare car battery (which runs my LED floodlights)

If your garage is a long way away, make sure these are on the roof and out of sight otherwise you're just advertising that there something vaulable in there.

wayno wrote:I use 2 of the 2.4w maplins ones in parallel (about £15 each). The last couple of weeks these have happily kept my battery at 12.7v I even take them off for 3 days a week to charge up my spare car battery (which runs my LED floodlights)

If your garage is a long way away, make sure these are on the roof and out of sight otherwise you're just advertising that there something vaulable in there.

+1 on all that. I use 2 Maplins jobbies in parallel to keep the battery on my car topped up. Works well.

Hi, I thought Id give a motobat a try when the old battery gave up the ghost last year. So far no problems, bike starts up better and the battery certainly seems to keep its charge when bike left in garage for long periods. No alarm on bike though.
I've used a solar charger also, ok for keeping battery topped up but didn't appear to be able to recover a slightly discharged battery, like you had to run a cable and get the optimate on for that.

maz wrote: I've used a solar charger also, ok for keeping battery topped up but didn't appear to be able to recover a slightly discharged battery, like you had to run a cable and get the optimate on for that.

Using 2 of the 2.4w jobbies in the current weather conditions recovers about 0.2v a day when the battery is down to 11.9v (this is the lowest I let it get down to before I disconnect from the garage battery and reconnect the bike)