Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Im shopping for a lithium battrry for my custom project. What is the minimum battery amps to stick with for an early H1 with Jim's Lakeland box, incandeacent headlight and turn signals?

Rich, the amp-hour (a-h) rating is the one you're concerned with here. Any amp rating would be something like "reserve amps" or "cold cranking amps", and you really don't care about those for your application. One amp-hour means the battery will put out one amp for one hour.

I think the early H1s had batteries rated at 9 amp-hours. You should probably stick with something in that area, more or less. Like 2 a-h probably wouldn't be enough, and 20 a-h isn't necessary. Lower a-h ratings mean if your charging system fails, you don't go as far before the battery runs down and the ignition quits.

_________________
If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

Stock was 9A.

_________________
Answers are here: http://kawatriple.com/

9 a-h, that is. Thanks Dale.

_________________
If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

If you get Jim's super regulator you don't even need a battery.
http://www.lakeserv.net/kaw/regulator/index.html

Mike, I appreciate the plug, but he has an early H1 with a different electrical system. My regulator works only on the H1D and later.

_________________
If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

Thank you all so much. Thats exactly what I needed.
Hope everyone had a great Merry Christmas with thier families and Happy New Year!

No electrician here, but why does the H2 have a physically smaller, and smaller capacity (5.5 amp/hr) battery, presumably you could use that in a H1? Just curious, I have trouble changing light bulbs!!

_________________
"One day, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching." : anon.

Rod, an H2 battery would work fine in a late H1, since its ignition system is a magneto type, and is separate from the 12v system. In fact you can use a big capacitor to replace the battery altogether in those triples.

The early H1's ignition system is powered from the battery, so a battery with less capacity won't run the bike as long as a stock battery if the charging system fails, or if you get into stop and go traffic for a long time. If you don't mind that, a 5.5 amp-hour H2 battery like H2s came with would probably be fine in an early H1. You could probably get by with an even small one, but at some point you'll run into trouble.

_________________
If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

Thanks Jim, yeah, I wasn't thinking about the different ignition systems!

_________________
"One day, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching." : anon.