Racing battery

One of the easiest and quickest way to pull some weight off a motorcycle, as well as put a whole in your wallet, is to install a lightweight battery. There has been one in order for a month and it made it to the garage's door last week.

A standard ZX7R battery, say a Yuasa YT12B, weighs a heavy 4.09kg. The Racing Batteries RB240400 is as light as 1.05kg, which makes a full 3.04kg gain once installed.

Of course the tiny battery does not have the same dimensions as the standard one, causing a short head scratching moment during the installation process in order to attach it properly. Of course, there are some maintenance instructions that you should follow thoroughly so you don't damage the LiFePO4 battery permanently. But it's still an easy mod for a huge saving.

Now, to the pics. I put a well-known toy next to the RB240400 so everyone can figure out how small is this battery.

Racing Batteries recommend the use of a specific charger and suggest you get an Optimate Lithium battery tender. You can buy one direct from them.

The whole set came in what is certainly the worst packaged box that made its way to the garage last year.

Lightweight racing batteries

We've already discussed about batteries this year when mentioning Carbon Speed Racing products range. Batteries are really worth a first look when you're trying to shave some weight out of your ride as a motorcycle battery average weight is around 5kgs, which is a lot on a 160+ supersport.

Good news for who wants to prep' up his bike for track purpose : here are 2 new options for lightweight racing batteries to choose from. The first one is from Black and White bikes, a UK-based track bike specialist.

The second alternative is sold by Performance Parts limited.

Both of these batteries do cover a wide range of motorcycles. Each of these suppliers can provide with two different battery models : one for the smaller capacity engines, the other for bigger capacity, twins and thumper engines. Expect a gain of  4+kgs as those batteries' claimed weight is around 499 grams.

Lighten your ride ...

... but not your every day ride, as this hardware only aims at track bike applications.

Anyway, if you are looking for a simple way to reduce the rider/bike package overall weight, then you might be tempted to look at what Carbon Speed Racing has to offer.

Of course as always with racing products, this is a bit pricey for just a battery. But another cheap way to have access to this 4 to 5 kg gain on the rider/bike package overall weight is : a good diet. Performance is within easy reach, it's now up to you.