Battery charger ?

[Martin_D]

Thanks for the tips everybody !

[Lee]

Lee, manufacturers for the heated gear strongly recommended that you DO NOT use the SAE charger pigtail.
I had this discussion with the Warm and Safe guy. Gerbing is the same. They want you to use the coaxial pigtail that comes with their kit.
My bikes have both attached to the battery.

I guess their concern is the gauge of the battery tender wire, not the SAE connector.

[RS530]

[R111S]

I have a Bosch Battery Charger that has an AGM Mode for the AGM Battery in my K1300S.

https://www.boschautoparts.com/en/au...es/smartcharge

[aviator]

The above mentioned Deltran auto selects whatever kind of battery you have.

[Pittsdriverwes]

I've always used a fused SAE pigtail straight to the battery; or, Bob's BMW converts the powerlet connector on the left side of my GS to a straight fused connection to the battery. I have a short powerlet male to coax pigtail for my heated gear and another short powerlet to SAE for all my other power needs (air pump, battery charging, etc). I've always bypassed the CANBUS for battery charging which allows for a cheap-ass battery tender maintenance charger.

[beech]

The idea of buying a smart battery charger is that it will not need to be removed from the bike until you want to ride it. They sense what type of battery is in the circuit and thus determine the proper voltage and cycle for it. Lead acid , AGM batteries and even the old nasty Gel batteries each require different charging voltages for optimum preservation. They monitor the charge level in the battery and top it up as needed all on its own. Some use a pulse system to keep sulfate build up from happening. Good ones can determine if the battery is in the bike or on the bench and mess with the battery in the proper manner for those situations. Optimate and Etreme make good ones. The optimate treats a battery that is on the bench rather hard if needed, to remove sulfation. But a bike battery in this zone is not fit for use in my opinion due to the possibility of being left stranded due to failure. And, BMW bikes do not like to be started (or attempted to start) with a battery in poor condition as you all know.
(as for the heated clothing discussion...hyjack alert...Gordon's heated clothing is run by the Son of the original Gerbing's company which is now owned by some other company who bought them out.
https://gordonsheated.com/index.php/contact-us
You want good stuff buy from Gordon.

[aviator]

Beech, what about the deltran? Comment on it?

[beech]

These are very popular products. The Battery Tender Plus seems to be the ticket. I usually don't mention them because some folks have one in the garage that is pretty old and made prior to the new electronics installed in them. Also there is caution indicated in one of the FAQ's about leaving it on a battery for a long time. A minor comment but it is there. And I especially like the information about properly charging a new battery before installing in a bike (or car). I have a battery tender plus but it is not my go to unit. It serves me well. We in general now use AGM batteries (sealed) and the Plus unit is engineered for them. Not the previous models.
http://www.batterytender.com/faq/products

[Aa3jy]

[beech]

I agree, not my choice for other than a top up for new batteries.

[Martin_D]

Thanks everyone for all the comments .
After reading all of them , and having a discussion with the guy who works on my R90S , I finally got one of these .
Already had that same model for my GSA for the last 6 or 7 years without any problems, so I figured it was a good choice ...

[justjoe]

[beech]

Perfect choice.

[Zoomie]

[MattB]

Hello Zoomie, welcome!

I currently have an Optimate 4, but they now offer a new/different charger specifically for LiFe (lithium) batteries which i just ordered (I don't have it yet). Curious, which model was able to resurrect your Shorai?

Also curious if you do not mind, how many years old is your Shorai that is still going? I bought a "MOTY" battery back in 2010 as part of a group buy, I had not put any thought into the technology or brand which is very unlike me, but I'm happy to report that it's still going along doing its job... sadly, the manufacturer is not.