Bosch batteries - any good?

[Mitch]

Been offered a YB14LA2 battery - made by Bosch - for £38 inc the dreaded VAT by our local bike shop.

Has anyone ever used them before? Surely they can't be any worse than the cheapy crap one I bought last time...?

[Mitch]

I'll take that as a 'no' then :D

[MSVA Tech]

Put a Bosch battery on my GS850 in Germany in the 80's never had a problem with it. Looked like badge engineering though Bosch label on Jap Batt.

Needed a YBL14A2 in a hurry last year found a Yuasa one in Halfords on a Sunday morning, don't recall the cost but don't think it was too bad.

cheers

chris

[Mitch]

Put a Bosch battery on my GS850 in Germany in the 80's never had a problem with it. Looked like badge engineering though Bosch label on Jap Batt.

That's the problem isn't it! I suppose it would be better to take the battery off while the bikes are stored over the winter (yeah right! :D )

[Blackjack]

Yeah, but there's a couple of odd things about storing batteries.

They don't like sitting on concrete or any other kind of floor, storing them on a wooden shelf seems to work better.

They need to be trickle charged once in a while.

The details escape me, because if you "store" a bike with a decent battery on it round here, my experience is that the battery gets nicked for something else....

Why a bike shop Mitch? We've got a local place that deals in batteries and they do Varta ones. That's a good battery and they do gel versions as well.

Might be worth trying a car tyre/exhaust/battery type place.

[Mitch]

I had a look on the Varta website last night - a gel filled battery isn't bad (about £55) considering what the shops round here charge - I suppose if you're going to spend about 40 on a Bosch battery, you might as well go the whole hog and buy a decent gel one.

[John Hopkins]

Bloody hell Mitch, Gel batteries are under £30 here and if they are all like the one I bought they are blinders...John

[noizy git]

I was down in Cornwall recently and discovered Thor Motorcycles just outside Bodmin. I had quite a conversation with them about gel batteries as I need one for the Guzzi special that I'm building, they really seem to know their stuff on the subject and their prices seemed competitive too so they might be worth getting in touch with.

Dave

[dracken1]

i sell most gel batteries for under £30.00.
there are some exceptions such as some bmw's and xv yams