Friday, Oct 5 2018 [41,791 miles]
I’m about 200 miles short of 42K. It’s also been just over a year since the 36K service. I didn’t ride the bike nearly as much as usual this year. Probably because I’m riding my DR650 more often than not.
The bike is over 5 years old. I’m still running the OEM battery. It even has a sticker with the bike’s VIN. Time for a change. I ordered an Anti-gravity LoFePO4 battery that will fit the bike. That also means I ordered a LiFePO4 compatible charger, too. The instructions for the battery were pretty specific about not using lead-acid “smart” chargers. I expect to use another LiFePO4 battery in my DR. A proper charger will be a good tool to have.
![New Battery](./t-1131-IMG_3597.jpg)
New Battery
![Lithium-Ion](./t-1436-IMG_3598.jpg)
Lithium-Ion
This is the new battery. The case has positive and negative terminals on both front and pack. Pick the ones you want to use. I matched the terminal locations used on the stock battery.
![Stock battery](./t-1437-IMG_3599.jpg)
Stock battery
![short, needs spacer](./t-1442-IMG_3600.jpg)
short, needs spacer
![Access to hot lead](./t-1442-IMG_3601.jpg)
Access to hot lead
Unhook ground. Unhook the rubber retaining strap and bracket. Notice the spacer under the battery. Slide the battery out to get access to the hot lead.
![New and old](./t-1444-IMG_3602.jpg)
New and old
![Old is shorter](./t-1445-IMG_3603.jpg)
Old is shorter
The new battery is in a standard size case. It is, however, larger than the battery that came with the bike. BMW used a spacer to make the stock battery better fit in the bike. The spacer probably helped damp vibrations, too.
![Without spacer](./t-1454-IMG_3605.jpg)
Without spacer
![Spacer modification](./t-1454-IMG_3604.jpg)
Spacer modification
![With modified spacer](./t-1457-IMG_3606.jpg)
With modified spacer
The battery fit without a spacer. There was room to spare. I liked the idea of some vibration damping, though. I cut the stock spacer into two pieces and put the smaller piece under the battery. I think that is better.
![Software update](./t-1538-IMG_3607.jpg)
Software update
The last thing done today was hooking up my GS-911 and do an autoscan to check for fault codes. But before that my GS-911 needed updating. To update I clicked on a couple of buttons then waited 10-15 minutes for code to be downloaded, unpacked, installed, etc.
The autoscan reported one error – a bulb failure. Yup. I replaced a headlight about 3 weeks ago.
More tomorrow.