Gear Guide: Is this the perfect battery?

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The night before my first ride this spring, I did something I have never done before. Indeed, I did something I suspect few motorcyclists — at least, the attentive ones — have ever done before: I went out to my trusty Suzuki V-strom 1000, took off its seat, unbolted a few brackets, hooked up its battery, turned the ignition key on and then … walked away.

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Yes, just walked away.

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Now, you’re thinking I must have left out one crucial part in the process. “You started the bike and then walked away to let it warm up, right? C’mon Dave, tell me you didn’t just leave the headlight on. Surely you’re not that much of a moron!”

Well, that last point might be open to debate, but no, I didn’t start the bike. And yes, I deliberately left the Suzuki’s 55-watt H7 low beam burn into the darkness that is the Booth garage. I did so, as they imply in pretty much every episode of Law and Order , with deliberation and malice aforethought. I was aware that leaving the key in the on position would drain the battery, and yes, Your Honour, I understood the consequences of my actions.

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Yet, when I came out the next morning — first ascertaining the lights were no longer on, and the voltage across the battery’s terminals was indeed zero — I returned the key to the off position, flicked it back on, hit the starter button, and yes, you could’ve knocked me over with a feather, too; Suzuki’s 1,037 cc of V-twin happiness started up as if the previous night’s electron drain was just a nightmare to be quickly forgotten.

If this is all still a bit mystifying, then let me explain I was testing Full Spectrum’s new battery. One that is, if not quite the perfect energy source, the closest thing to a perpetual electron machine you’re likely to fit into the battery box of your motorcycle.

As discussed in Motor Mouth , all I needed to do when I come back to my “dead” battery is push a little “reset” button, and God bless Joseph Lucas, inventor of the intermittent electron, my bright yellow V-strom started up like the headlight was never left on. In effect, what the Full Spectrum had done, is that after it drained down to 12.9 volts, it simply disconnected itself internally from the bike. For all intents and purposes, the battery was no longer in, or attached to, the bike.

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Better yet, the 12.9 V threshold that Full Spectrum uses is sufficiently safe, says company founder Jason Levitt, that repeated draining — I was so enthralled, I did the whole leave-the-headlight-on thing three times before leaving the poor baby alone — will not cause any long-term damage. In other words, this is as close as a battery is likely to get to being completely foolproof. Levitt has even programmed another, lower 12.2 V threshold, beyond which the battery won’t even try to start, just in case you try to run down the battery further after hitting the reset button by, for instance, trying to repeatedly turn over some cranky, old, ill-carbureted big-inch custom.

As for the rest of the battery’s performance, it was pretty much superlatives all round as well. Although much lighter than stock, Full Spectrum makes — pardon the bad pun — a full spectrum of stock-sized batteries. The P10 I ordered, for instance, replaced the Suzuki’s FTZ14S almost perfectly, the only difference being that it was about four millimetres shorter. Better yet, most of the company’s stock-sized batteries are available with various ratings, my P10 available in three different configurations from 160 to 360 cranking amps.

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Another impressive feature is that, instead of just one small terminal for each pole, Full Spectrum runs a terminal “bar” along both sides of the battery with attachments points at both ends. That not only means you can turn the battery around to fit multiple models, but you can also attach accessories without unbolting the main positive and negative leads. Très cool for those of us with heated vests and loads of other accessories.

The Full Spectrum range is even almost reasonably priced, at least for a lithium battery — a P10 with 210 CA costing US$169. The same battery, rated for 160 CA, retails for US$139. Yes, with the IPT technology included. Those prices may be significantly more than a bargain-basement lead acid battery, but not so far removed from the cost of a topflight, name-brand AGM version.

In fact, there’s really only one serious downside to the Full Spectrum battery, namely that there is not yet a Canadian distributor, requiring importation from the United States with all the tariffs and shipping involved. For many, that will be a travail too far for what is, after all, just a battery. On the other hand, it is less of a hardship than being stranded in a remote parking lot, late at night, with a dead battery. Full Spectrum batteries are available here .