F650GS Battery

Jenn's bike, a 2001 BMW F650GS, was put up in the shed over the winter. One of the important things about storing a bike is to make sure you put the battery on a charger to make sure it doesn't die. A charged battery is a happy battery.

A battery that's been kicked over, on the other hand, is not a happy battery. Especially after it pukes up a good portion of it's acid onto the garage floor.

Yep, somehow I managed to get the thing on it's side for a few days.

Time for a new battery.

I was checking out the F650 FAQ over at The Chain Gang to see what batteries fit. I didn't want another flooded battery since it's such a pain to open the bike up to get to it to check the acid levels. A maintenance-free AGM battery would be a lot easier. There were some success stories there.

Going over to BatteriesPlus down in Macedonia the guy hooked me up with an X2 battery that was around the same size - the X2-15L. It's a bit bigger than the stock. It's the same height and width, but a little bit thicker, maybe around 3-5mm. The FAQ has all sorts of talk of modifying the battery tray, cutting this or bending that. I was getting worried about how big of a job this might turn out to be. But there was a report in the FAQ about someone just wedging the battery in. Thankfully with a bit of wiggling (and removing the foam pad) the battery slid in. The battery doesn't slide a bit so the foam pad wouldn't do anything anyway!

I just wanted to report a success if anyone else is looking to do the same. It's an easy "mod" to put in the new battery!