Getting Ready To Ride

It seems to have been forever since we’ve been behind bars. 

Handlebars, that is. Born Free Motorcycle Show is coming up and we need to get the bikes ready. I tell you what, I am itchin’ to just get on the old bike and roll. It doesn’t matter where we are going. It’s time for us to ride. I kinda wish Born Free was a bit away. It’s right in our backyard.

My bike has been sitting in the garage since we got Project Riff-Raff done and the battery was a bit toast when I parked it. I could have kept a maintainer on it, but I knew it was on it’s last leg. Come to find out the damn thing is 6 years old! 

Billy’s rig was even worse. He has a bit more electronics on his rig with the Love Juggs Fans, and the Ultra-Cool oil cooler. Thought we’d give it a test to jump it with the Weego Jump Starter 22s. The Weego 22s, has “Smarty Clamps” that hinge out to fit in tight spaces have tapered tips and both sides are charged to ensure a successful connection. These bulky boxes are set into the battery box pretty tight. The Weego Jump Starter 22s is powerful enough to jump start engines at 300 peak amps up to 5L in gas, and 2.5L diesels. This is a strip-down and strong lithium battery purpose built for jump starting.

The Smarty Clamps have a light and beep for successful clamping. They give a code to tell you any issues you may have. Our batteries were so dead, there wasn’t enough reserve charge for the Jump Starter to activate. Cool tool to have. We have seen other brands that need to be recharged at least monthly. This charger has the staying power of 1000 charging cycles and over a year of standby power on a single charge! Worry free. Perfect for road trips and small enough to fit in your glove box or saddlebag. Check out their products at www.MyWeego.com.

So, with the batteries being toast, we took a look at a bunch of different motorcycle batteries and Odyssey kept coming up as a great solution for our bikes. The Odyssey had us sold with the sheer power they provide. pulses in excess of 2250 amps for 5 seconds and can handle 400 charge/discharge cycles to 80% depth of discharge. The dry cell AGM thin flat plates of 99.99% pure lead fill the steel wrapped box. These things are tough.

For our Harley’s the posts are on the side, and the folks at Odyssey provide L shaped brackets to allow for the terminals to connect to the top. Unexpected plus: The L brackets also make installing and removing the batteries much easier in the tight box under the seat. See more at www.OdysseyBattery.com

Now a little detail using our handy Tool Creeper and Sidekick Stool from MYCHANIC and we are ready to hit the road.

Words and images, T-Bone.