Just in case nobody had noticed, there's a new player in the Lithium battery industry for vehicles....
http://www.batterytender.com/Batteries/360-CCA-Lithium-Engine-Start-Battery.html
I wonder if they can be maintenance charged with their Battery tenders that most of us have already....
Do these have built in cell balancing circuitry?
I kinda trust these guy more than the Shorias, Ballistic and other new Lithium battery makers for bikes as they are a familiar, long lived brand already.....
Yes, they are. And yes, they can be charged with a Battery Tender, Jr, etc etc. As long as it is not a deep sulfation charger, you will be fine.
It is really interesting that Deltran finally got into the li-ion business because they talked it down so much for years when it first came out. Part of their pitch was "none of the OEMs have gone to it yet so it must not work". Well, I believe Ducati is now offering a Paningale model with a li-ion battery standard.
I have heard of alot of issues with Shorai and Ballistic. I have purchased 3 WPS lithium batteries (Daytona 675 track bike, Hawk GT and Y2K VFR) and all have been fine. 2 year warranty. They make several size cases vs. the Shorai that has a smaller number of sizes and uses more foam to provide the correct fit. More foam equals more weight and more heat so that defeats some of the advantage of a li-ion battery.
Li-ion batteries work well in most applications. They don't like extreme heat or extreme cold. They can be especially finicky when its -20 degrees f. At those temps, they require about 10-15 seconds with the ignition switched on before they build up some resistance/ heat and will crank. They also are not as suited for larger (HD especially) v-twins. They just don't have the cranking capacity of a lead acid battery. Yet.
Overall I have been really happy with my li-ion batteries and the weight savings is the biggest bang for the buck you will find on a modern sportbike. I shaved 7lbs of unsprung weight up high on my Daytona 675. For them money that was a super noticeable weight loss, and the battery was due for replacement anyways. For my pure sportbike applications, I feel that li-ion is the way to go. But for my 2007 VFR R/W/B that I ride cross country and year round, I will stick with my trusty Yuasa YTZ14S.
But, as they say, YRMV.