I need a new battery for my 2001 VFR and went to Canadian Tire. The only thing that came up in their system was the 750 interceptor. Would they use the same battery? Not sure how specific these things need to be thought I'd ask before I bought it cause they didn't know much about bike batteries.
It will fit right into your 5th gen with one tiny mod. Using your battery as a template, trace the bottom outline tightly onto a piece of 3/4" plywood, then use a jigsaw to cut INSIDE the line, and you have a spacer for the bottom of your battery box.
This is because the length x width are identical, but the height is 3/4" shorter than your stock YTX-12BS
You will get more cranking amps and greater reserve capacity, plus the self-discharge rate of the AGM battery is far less than the sealed lead-acid type.
230 cold cranking amps Vs 180
Quote
Advantages
All AGM batteries have enhancements over flooded lead acid batteries:
Purer lead in the plates, as each plate no longer needs to support its own weight, due to the sandwich construction with AGM matting. Traditional cells must support their own weight in the bath of acid.
Fluid retention – un-spillable
High specific power or power density, holding roughly 1.5x the AH capacity of flooded batteries due to purer lead[citation needed]
Low internal resistance allowing them to be charged and discharged quite rapidly
Depth of discharge for optimal performance is up to 80% while flooded batteries can only be rated up to 50% depth of discharge
Water conservation – never requires addition of water
Acid encapsulation in the matting
Operation well below 0°F or −18 °C.
Availability of UL, DOT, CE, Coast Guard, and Mil-Spec approved types
Vibration resistance due to the sandwich construction.
I like the YTZ14S, too, but the "hype" you quoted also applies to the YTX-type AGM batteries (e.g., the OEM VFR750 battery). The YTX-type AGM batteries are not "flooded lead-acid"--those are the even older ones you have to add water to, which makes this comparison slightly unfair.
Btw, I have a YTZ14S in my Y2k--no spacer. The sides of the battery enclosure can be trimmed, but I don't think I even did that.
Well I wasn't shopping for "hype", I just hit Wikipedia for info on AGM batteries and copied what was there.
On the Yuasa site, it showed a picture of the YTX 12bs and there was an acid fill pack with the batt.
I thought that the YTX series had liquid acid in them, as there is a spec for acid fill volume listed, but for the YTZ series the acid fill volume is left blank.
Oh, I know it was from Wikipedia--you left the "citation needed" tags in! :tongue: But it was obviously copied there from somebody's battery marketing literature. The phrase "flooded lead acid" refers to wet cell technology: the plates are immersed in liquid at all times. These are the batteries with little caps for each cell, which also require regular maintenance, including re-filling with distilled water, etc.
As we know, AGM stands for "absorbed glass matt" technology, in which the acid is fully absorbed into fiberglass matting wrapped around the plates. So, the reason I called the Wikipedia information "hype" is because it was a comparison of AGM technology to the old, flooded lead acid technology, not between the YTX-type of AGM and the YTZ-type of AGM.
There are two "types" of AGM batteries these days: The only significant difference is who does the initial filling of acid--you (YTX), or the factory (YTZ). In both cases, the acid is no longer in liquid form after the battery has been activated. I did a bit of research into this topic a few years ago when I thought I'd have to mount a battery sideways, and (initially) found the Odyssey battery marketing hype convincing. Further research revealed, however, that Odyssey's "dry cell" technology was the same as regular AGM, just "factory sealed", like the new YTZ-type batteries. It turns out that, once activated, you can also mount YTX-type batteries on their sides, because there is no more liquid contianed within the casing. Odyssey probably did market the "factory sealed" AGM battery first, but much of the increased performance claimed by them seems to come from the fact that their batteries are simply larger (and thus heavier) than standard-sized AGM batteries.
That said, the YTZs seem to have better specs than comparable YTXs, but I think that's mainly due to AGM technology having moved on a bit since the YTX was developed (in other words, they could probably make an "improved" YTX today with the same performance as the YTZ if they wanted); the basic AGM technology is essentially the same.
I like the YTZs because I don't have to hassle with acid packs and because they can be shipped without hazardous materials handling. Some people also like them because they don't have to be carefully charged before first use (unlike YTX-type AGMs). They are also generally more compact than comparable YTXs, but not by a huge amount.
Finally (I promise!), I should mention that "YTZ" and "YTX" are just Yuasa's teminology for the two types of AGM batteries--other manufacturers use different designations, but a lot of them do tend to use similar letters.