Battery performance

[Sunrise.jak]

Honda has been delivering our "sister bike" the Africa Twin with a lithium ion battery since I think 2018. Thats 5-6 years of history and I've scoured the AT forums but cant find any real negative reports surrounding incidents with the lithium battery or jumping. I still think they advise against jump starting but perhaps thats more liability related?  It would be good to see the real data from Honda regarding the difference with the traditional lead acid with lithium but thats unlikely to become public knowledge. Maybe I'm overly optimistic or trusting but I assume if this were a problem and the data confirmed that NHTSA or the NTSB would put out an alert? If a lithium battery is sufficient for the AT and folks readily use a lithium jump starter from time to time I would guess the risk of incident would be low? Or as we're discussing here a lithium to lead acid jump. Have the BMS components gotten sufficiently robust these days to protect against damage from jumping? I'm still using my original lead acid battery and I carry the lithium jump start battery on trips. Again, I guess I'm just an optimist! But if I were a true optimist I might not carry the jump starter at all!

[JohnM]

Re- using a car to jump start.  I'd definitely do it with the donor car engine (charge system) off.  There's plenty of oomph in an idle car battery to start an NT (if the leads are up to it) and wouldn't risk 'bricking' any of the modules with a running car.  That said, Honda's own charge guide usually has a rather high maximum voltage limit.

There is way more risk from flashing high current cables where they aren't wanted or even reverse polarity muppets (there have been many) than an overenthusiastic 12v.  Even disconnecting everything when running posses a risk.

[Art]

NHTSA and NTSB alerts?

Only in America and Honda's warning may well be with just that in mind, not that the NT1100 is available in the USA as yet.

[Sunrise.jak]

Hi Art, Of course you're right!!  Oops I was recently in a discussion pertaining to another motorcycle I own and the NHTSA and NTSB was a pertinent part of that discussion.  I need to keep my motoring channels/forums straight! Indeed I'm an American but living in Thailand hence the NT1100 availability for me. Thanks for being on the ball as usual and correcting my bonehead comment.