Battery

[Seventies]

Guys,
Many opinions flying around I know but my R1100RT battery has finally died and I need to replace it. I'm the old school lead acid type to be honest but I'm open to trying something new if the advice given is reliable and proven. I heard a rumour that the original battery was gel, although I've never checked to confirm. Advice of best battery types/makes and the best places to purchase from gratefully received.
Cheers fellas,

 

[peepingtom]

I prefer the exide gel on my rt. I've recently put a motobatt on my gs and find it a bit sluggish compared to that or the oddessy . The exude is cheaper too.

 

[beemer pimp]

I have motobatt on rt and Honda and its excellent .

 

[wessie]

There don't seem to be many people making the old, wet type battery - even the cheap brands on Ebay are AGM, which are still lead/acid but it is held in an absorbed glass mat so won't spill if you have a tumble. My last bike and the new one have batteries lay on their sides which can be done with AGM.

Personally, I would use www.tayna.co.uk as a reference and then see if a Motobatt is cheaper on Ebay. Westco is a decent brand as well as Varta & Exide.

 

[Wrigsby1]

The original 11RT battery was lead acid... Gel came in with later 1150's... I have just put a new battery on my 12RT and went with Yuasa lead acid as I could get it easily and it was listed as an option... Has worked fine so far and that is with all the RT bling extras... Mind you, I do use it nearly every day so it doesn't have to suffer too much duvet time...

PS... The word seems to be that gel batteries will work fine and then die suddenly as lead acids usually have a slow lingering death...

 

[Fanum]

Motobatts are great for price/quality, plus they have four posts, so you can use a pair of pos/neg for the starter system and bolt it down solidly, then run accessories from the other pair (that side tends to get done up/undone more and multiple layers of ring connectors on a post isn't great for delivering full current 100% of the time)

You can normally get a higher amp hour rated battery than OEM rated in the same physical size as well

 

[Seventies]

Cheers fellas, lots of info there.