HI GUYS. I HAVE 2001 F4I AND ITS BATTERY JUST WENT OUT. my question is, at napa same size battery is 40 bucks, and at bike shop, its 99 bucks!! so im wondering if i could use the one from napa since bike store guy said there is only 1 reccomeneded battery for f4i!. he said something bout gel battery. what is the difference?? if its ok i am going to buy the one from napa cuz its alot cheaper!! please let me know if you guys have any ideas! thank you!!

 

As far as the specs match the battery will be fine. One of my local dealships wants $115 for a stock battery but the same one from indysuperbikes is only 87. An auto parts store selling parts and not "motorcycle" parts will be even cheaper. My neighbor just put a $40+ battery in his Buell that matched all specs when the HD dealership wanted 3 times that amount.

 

Only thing I would be apprehensive about is if the Napa battery is a normal lead-acid style (water between the plates inside the battery) and it having vents/access ports on the top of the battery (to allow for water service)--which could lead to leakage in bank angles, hard stopping or hard accels. If it were me, I'd fork out the $99 and get the battery which is engineered with bank angles etcin mind. Might save yourself a headache in the long-run.

 

+1 i put a new one in from the stealership about a week ago was 115 after taxes......try cyclegear.com or somthing like that, you can get them cheaper, i was just there at the stealership and it was more convienent

 

get a gel battery and forget about all that mumbo jumble.

 

+1 on Tahoe's recommendation...
You could try high-feedback sellers on ebay for gel

 

I WORKED IN THE AUTO PARTS INDUSTRY AND AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED IT WOULD WORK JUST FINE, IT WOULD TAKE A BIKE BATTERY A LONG TIME FOR IT TO LEAK CAUSE ITS ALMOST AIR TIGHT SO EVEN IF YOU ACCELERATE HARD OR EVEN IF THE BIKE FELL ON ITS SIDE IT WOULD'NT LEAK BUT WATER DOES EVAPORATE THOUGH SO I WOULD AT LEAST CHECK THE WATER LEVEL ONCE EVERY YEAR.I BEEN WANTING TO ORDER ONE FROM AUTOZONE BUT HAVENT DONE IT YET CAUSE MY BATTERY STILL GOOD, BUT THATS THE FIRST PLACE I'M GOING TO BEFORE I GO TO THE DEALER.