GS450 L battery upgrade

[prxbadger]

hi i have a gs450 with an upgraded headlight from a bandit.

this draws more power so would a better battery compensate as the indicators now struggle to work.

can anyone recommend another battery as im not an expert with such things, or do i need to upgrade anything else on the bike?

any help greatly appreciated

[Nessism]

Standard battery for an early model GS450 is a YB10L-A2. 11 amp-hours. Later 450's use a slightly larger YB12B-B2 - 12 ah. I don't think the larger battery will fit into an early bike due to size restrictions. As far as I know, these sizes and capacities, are the only game in town due to size restrictions.

http://www.batteryweb.com/motorcyclelist.cfm?motorbrand=Suzuki&cc=450

[prxbadger]

ok, thats great thanks for the link n info, i will have no problem modifying the battery box, can i clarify, more amps means more power or does it mean it will last longer.

also would it be charged correctly from normal running?

[Nessism]

I don't know about your 450L but my 81 450E was not easily modified to install a larger battery. All the batteries are 12v, the larger capacity batteries just last longer. Regarding your bike in general, make sure the charging system is working properly and go from there.

[salty_monk]

Start with a check to see if your current battery is up to scratch. It could be old & tired.

What bulb does the Bandit headlight use? What bulb did the original 450 use? The wattage & thus the current drain should not be hugely different.

My 1000 uses a H4 55/60w

Using the equation P=IV where I is amps & P is power in watts you can then work out the current drawn & see how much harder your system is having to work. A bigger battery can only compensate for so long if it's drawing a lot more amps.

As a working example:

55 = ? x 12 therefore 55/12 = 4.6amps on dipped beam.

I would also check all the bikes earths, the struggling indicators could just be a sign of a bad earth & I've heard electrics are the weak points on these old Suzi's.....

Dan

[prxbadger]

cheers very informative, i do have reason to suspect the battery

will look at the power consumed as the new bulb is a halogen bulb too


the indicators do work at high revs which led me to hope it was the battery