Sponsored / Shorai LFX Batteries: More Energy, Less Weight

Photo: Shorai

In the 12 years since Shorai’s founding, their lithium-iron phosphate (LiFePO4) LFX batteries have offered the motorsports equivalent of a free lunch. With their battery chemistry and proprietary cell technology, LFX batteries are smaller, lighter, and more powerful than their lead acid equivalents.

The weight savings are significant. When our sister site, Motorcycle.com, first reviewed the Shorai’s LFX in 2011, their initial impression upon picking it up was that it must be empty. Shorai claims a weight difference of up to 80 percent, shaving 2-3 pounds from a dirt bike, 6-8 on a street bike, and 10-20 on a cruiser.

To apply that to the world of adventure bikes, the Shorai LFX replacement battery for the Kawasaki KLR650 weighs just 2.35 pounds. That is 5.37 pounds lighter than the lead acid equivalent. Think about how much that kind of weight loss on a bike would normally cost you.

The LFX battery replaces lead, one of the heaviest metals on the periodic table, with lithium, a metal light enough to float on water. Lithium allows for a much higher energy density, meaning more capacity per pound in your battery. And with about a third of the internal resistance of a lead-acid battery, that energy is accessible.

Shorai LFX batteries are also better at holding onto that power, operating at full voltage until the battery is fully discharged. They don’t degrade or sulphate while your bike is parked. Shorai claims the LFX can hold a charge for a year without maintenance, and expects a service life of two to four times that of a lead-acid battery. They’re confident enough in that to back the LFX with a five-year pro-rated warranty.

Although an LiFEPO4 battery can use a lead-acid charger, they can be damaged by overcharging, or by certain repair or reconditioning modes, and Shorai recommends they be disconnected once the LFX is charged. To avoid all that, Shorai also carries dedicated LFX battery chargers that monitor individual cells during charging. A dedicated Shorai charger rings in a little under $90.

Shorai recommends using its charger with its batteries, to avoid problems. Photo: Shorai

As the automotive industry moves away from internal combustion to electric power, it is finding batteries can present environmental challenges of their own, particularly in the mining process and then later, in disposal. Shorai’s LeFePO4 setup has advantages here too. In addition to avoiding toxic lead, LFX batteries contain neither nickel nor cobalt, which are relatively rare, and can be intensive and environmentally destructive to mine. The LFX battery then stays in your motorcycle for years longer than a lead-acid battery would, reducing its overall footprint and saving you money. And at the end, there is no lead in the battery to cause contamination. Just discharge and dispose.

Shorai builds LFX batteries using prismatic, rectangular cells, making them easy to pack into about two dozen configurations. Each battery ships with high-density adhesive-backed foam shims to ensure a snug fit even if you choose to leave yourself a wallet-sized pocket in the battery box. So there’s an LFX battery featuring the right shape, capacity, and right/left polarity to fit your bike. But which one?

Fortunately Shorai has figured it out by model and year, and made it all searchable at shoraipower.com. And not just current or common models. Need a battery for your 1993 BMW F650? No problem. ATVs and watercraft are listed too, going well back into 1980s models. If it runs, or ever did, Shorai seems to have figured out which battery to put into it.

ADVrider thanks Shorai for its support through this sponsored post.