I was hoping that the Co. would survive as they really put together a nice solid, low maintenance bike but times being what they are I guess its understandable....I suppose.
I ride an 01 Ice Blue Traveller and having 44K+ miles on it I still enjoy it as much as ever. I just installed my 3rd battery, the last one lasting 6 yrs to the month even though it was undersized. So this time I was determined to go with another AGM of a size that matched the box size of the battery. As things turned out it sort of difficult buying off the shelf for several reasons, one major one being almost all the units out there are the opposite config, that is; pos/neg terminals are reversed. The original battery was a 9-AH unit which after 3 yrs died. The only sealed unit I could get my hands on at the time was a 7-AH AGM unit which proved sufficient but didn't have the reserve power I would have liked. So I found a 14AH-BS which fit like a glove but with reverse terminal.
I'm not sure why motorcycle batteries are overwhelmingly opposite of what's available but it makes for interesting mods. Things worked out fairly well as I only had 3 things to alter: 1: move the ground to the right side(should have been that way from the factory) 2: dremel off the battery hold down post and 3: remove the under seat tab(this slides under the cross member bar just above the battery) This last item, while it may not seem a good idea, actually doesn't compromise the stability of the seat at all as there's more than enough contact area to keep things put. If you take a good look at the seat you'll see what I mean. Its been such a long time since the bike fired up this fast I thought for sure it was the miles.....it was in fact the battery. I'm totally confident it'll start in 15 degree weather with no problem. The main reason I went to AGM was "No Maintenance". This bike's all about no/low maintenance and it lives up to that reputation which is a perfect segue for the other mod, converting the chain drive to belt drive. It took 2yrs to locate a shop to do the work and finally located an old timer from Parksburg Pa who does this kind of work exclusively. Bob did a wonderful job with the conversion & as a little extra bonus I got more top end which works out to about 4K-RPM at 75-MPH which is an almost perfect cruising speed. There's no maintenance issues whatsoever with it and should last the life of the bike. Bob has customers with 100K-miles on their bikes with the same belt. Now, if I can only figure out how to keep the back rim clean.......
