From Newsgroup: uk.rec.motorcycles


My nextdoor neighbour has a 1998 Honda VT1100.(I call it Thunderbird
III). Late sunday evening it arrived home (silently) on a trailer.
Symptoms: conked out on the motorway, dead battery.
Looking for a battery for him, it's a special T-shaped one, I came
across these people.

https://gmotoshop.co.uk/

In Poland but ships to all countries with DHL (except for the UK, can't
think why). Seems very cheap.
Anybody heard of them?
--
Geoff
NTV 650
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From Newsgroup: uk.rec.motorcycles

"GeoffC" <me@home.nl> wrote in news:108kbmf$27ea$1@dont-email.me:

My nextdoor neighbour has a 1998 Honda VT1100.(I call it Thunderbird
III). Late sunday evening it arrived home (silently) on a trailer.
Symptoms: conked out on the motorway, dead battery.
Looking for a battery for him, it's a special T-shaped one, I came
across these people.

https://gmotoshop.co.uk/

In Poland but ships to all countries with DHL (except for the UK, can't
think why). Seems very cheap.
Anybody heard of them?

Never heard of them
Weird looking battery and no longer stocked by Tayna https://www.tayna.co.uk/motorcycle-batteries/landport/hyb16a-a/

Tayna suggests fitting a conventional shaped battery https://www.tayna.co.uk/motorcycle-batteries/f/honda/vt1100-c2-shadow-sabre-00-04/
although the model years are later.

Motobatt still make one if you can find a local supplier https://www.motorcycleproducts.co.uk/motobatt-mb16a-agm-sealed-battery/1/004718?bike=11888

AGM batteries will be miles better than the OE wet variety.
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From Newsgroup: uk.rec.motorcycles

wessie wrote:

"GeoffC" <me@home.nl> wrote in news:108kbmf$27ea$1@dont-email.me:

My nextdoor neighbour has a 1998 Honda VT1100.(I call it
Thunderbird III). Late sunday evening it arrived home (silently)
on a trailer. Symptoms: conked out on the motorway, dead battery.
Looking for a battery for him, it's a special T-shaped one, I came
across these people.

https://gmotoshop.co.uk/

In Poland but ships to all countries with DHL (except for the UK,
can't think why). Seems very cheap.
Anybody heard of them?

Never heard of them
Weird looking battery and no longer stocked by Tayna >https://www.tayna.co.uk/motorcycle-batteries/landport/hyb16a-a/

Tayna suggests fitting a conventional shaped battery >https://www.tayna.co.uk/motorcycle-batteries/f/honda/vt1100-c2-shadow-sabre-00-04/
although the model years are later.

Motobatt still make one if you can find a local supplier >https://www.motorcycleproducts.co.uk/motobatt-mb16a-agm-sealed-battery/1/004718?bike=11888

Yes they are available here for around that price. Somebody has fitted
a Yuasa YTZ14S but it is a bit weedy at 11.4Ah compared to the original
16Ah
And Gmoto has a very cheap one:

https://gmotoshop.co.uk/high-power-12v-16ah-jmt-hyb16a-a-battery-hcb16a-a,2926.html

AGM batteries will be miles better than the OE wet variety.

Yes there is that also.
I have a feeling there maybe deeper gremlins though. A while back the
connector from the voltage regulator melted and his son 'repaired' it
by removing the connector and adding some terminals and shrink wrap.
I reckon it's a potential nightmare so I am charging the battery for
him so he can get it to a garage :-)
Until I saw the connector 'fix' i was toying with the idea of getting
him a battery and a voltage regulator and see if that fixed his
problems but now I've seen the previous repairs i am reluctant to get
involved.
--
Geoff
NTV 650
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From Newsgroup: uk.rec.motorcycles

wessie wrote:

"GeoffC" <me@home.nl> wrote in news:108kbmf$27ea$1@dont-email.me:

My nextdoor neighbour has a 1998 Honda VT1100.(I call it Thunderbird
III). Late sunday evening it arrived home (silently) on a trailer.
Symptoms: conked out on the motorway, dead battery.
Looking for a battery for him, it's a special T-shaped one, I came
across these people.

https://gmotoshop.co.uk/

In Poland but ships to all countries with DHL (except for the UK, can't
think why). Seems very cheap.
Anybody heard of them?

Never heard of them
Weird looking battery and no longer stocked by Tayna https://www.tayna.co.uk/motorcycle-batteries/landport/hyb16a-a/

Tayna suggests fitting a conventional shaped battery https://www.tayna.co.uk/motorcycle-batteries/f/honda/vt1100-c2-shadow-sabre-00-04/
although the model years are later.

Motobatt still make one if you can find a local supplier https://www.motorcycleproducts.co.uk/motobatt-mb16a-agm-sealed-battery/1/004718?bike=11888

AGM batteries will be miles better than the OE wet variety.

Tayna would be my goto as well.

While I'd be a little wary of MotoBatt, they do have a suitable-looking
one in stock :
https://www.tayna.co.uk/motorcycle-batteries/motobatt/mb16a/
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From Newsgroup: uk.rec.motorcycles

"GeoffC" <me@home.nl> wrote in news:108kfec$355q$1@dont-email.me:

wessie wrote:

"GeoffC" <me@home.nl> wrote in news:108kbmf$27ea$1@dont-email.me:

My nextdoor neighbour has a 1998 Honda VT1100.(I call it
Thunderbird III). Late sunday evening it arrived home (silently)
on a trailer. Symptoms: conked out on the motorway, dead battery.
Looking for a battery for him, it's a special T-shaped one, I came
across these people.

https://gmotoshop.co.uk/

In Poland but ships to all countries with DHL (except for the UK,
can't think why). Seems very cheap.
Anybody heard of them?

Never heard of them
Weird looking battery and no longer stocked by Tayna >>https://www.tayna.co.uk/motorcycle-batteries/landport/hyb16a-a/

Tayna suggests fitting a conventional shaped battery >>https://www.tayna.co.uk/motorcycle-batteries/f/honda/vt1100-c2-shadow-

s

abre-00-04/ although the model years are later.

Motobatt still make one if you can find a local supplier >>https://www.motorcycleproducts.co.uk/motobatt-mb16a-agm-sealed-

battery/

1/004718?bike=11888

Yes they are available here for around that price. Somebody has fitted
a Yuasa YTZ14S but it is a bit weedy at 11.4Ah compared to the
original 16Ah
And Gmoto has a very cheap one:

https://gmotoshop.co.uk/high-power-12v-16ah-jmt-hyb16a-a-battery-

hcb16a

-a,2926.html

AGM batteries will be miles better than the OE wet variety.

Yes there is that also.
I have a feeling there maybe deeper gremlins though. A while back the connector from the voltage regulator melted and his son 'repaired' it
by removing the connector and adding some terminals and shrink wrap.
I reckon it's a potential nightmare so I am charging the battery for
him so he can get it to a garage :-)
Until I saw the connector 'fix' i was toying with the idea of getting
him a battery and a voltage regulator and see if that fixed his
problems but now I've seen the previous repairs i am reluctant to get involved.

will the ENTX14-BS (also YTX14-BS) as suggested by Tayna fit? It is
taller than the YTZ14S at 147mm instead of 110mm.

I would much rather a 14Ah AGM battery than that wet one from Poland,
which will discharge at a quicker rate. The AGM has over 200CCA rather
than 140 CCA in the wet one. Cold cranking amps is what you want with a
big twin, more than total capacity.
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From Newsgroup: uk.rec.motorcycles

Sqirrel99 <secret.sqirrel99@gmail.com> wrote in news:108kiec$41i9$1@dont-email.me:

wessie wrote:

"GeoffC" <me@home.nl> wrote in news:108kbmf$27ea$1@dont-email.me:

My nextdoor neighbour has a 1998 Honda VT1100.(I call it Thunderbird
III). Late sunday evening it arrived home (silently) on a trailer.
Symptoms: conked out on the motorway, dead battery.
Looking for a battery for him, it's a special T-shaped one, I came
across these people.

https://gmotoshop.co.uk/

In Poland but ships to all countries with DHL (except for the UK,
can't think why). Seems very cheap.
Anybody heard of them?

Never heard of them
Weird looking battery and no longer stocked by Tayna
https://www.tayna.co.uk/motorcycle-batteries/landport/hyb16a-a/

Tayna suggests fitting a conventional shaped battery
https://www.tayna.co.uk/motorcycle-batteries/f/honda/vt1100-c2-

shadow-

sabre-00-04/ although the model years are later.

Motobatt still make one if you can find a local supplier
https://www.motorcycleproducts.co.uk/motobatt-mb16a-agm-sealed-

battery

/1/004718?bike=11888

AGM batteries will be miles better than the OE wet variety.

Tayna would be my goto as well.

While I'd be a little wary of MotoBatt, they do have a
suitable-looking one in stock : https://www.tayna.co.uk/motorcycle-batteries/motobatt/mb16a/

Geoff is in NL hence looking at EU suppliers
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From Newsgroup: uk.rec.motorcycles

GeoffC <me@home.nl> wrote:

I have a feeling there maybe deeper gremlins though. A while back the connector from the voltage regulator melted and his son 'repaired' it
by removing the connector and adding some terminals and shrink wrap.
I reckon it's a potential nightmare so I am charging the battery for
him so he can get it to a garage :-)
Until I saw the connector 'fix' i was toying with the idea of getting
him a battery and a voltage regulator and see if that fixed his
problems but now I've seen the previous repairs i am reluctant to get involved.

Not a bad idea to keep your distance, but I'd probably struggle to
not get involved.

Charging systems on most permanent magnet alternator bikes are
pretty straightforward, there's usually only the stator, the regulator/rectifier, and the battery that go bad. Sometimes the
magnets can come unglued from the rotor, or even more rarely, lose
their magnetism, although I have no idea if this particular bike
suffers from that malady.

I will say my unscientific sampling of online woes about bikes with
dead batteries more often than not involve a good, albeit flat, battery
getting replaced by a new one, which then also becomes flat because the
root cause of the failure to charge was not determined. Also pretty
common is the stator or reg/rect being replaced without any testing
and since the original wasn't bad, the problem is still there...




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From Newsgroup: uk.rec.motorcycles

On 27/08/2025 03:07, Mark Olson wrote:

GeoffC <me@home.nl> wrote:

I have a feeling there maybe deeper gremlins though. A while back the
connector from the voltage regulator melted and his son 'repaired' it
by removing the connector and adding some terminals and shrink wrap.
I reckon it's a potential nightmare so I am charging the battery for
him so he can get it to a garage :-)
Until I saw the connector 'fix' i was toying with the idea of getting
him a battery and a voltage regulator and see if that fixed his
problems but now I've seen the previous repairs i am reluctant to get
involved.

Not a bad idea to keep your distance, but I'd probably struggle to
not get involved.

Yes, I am finding it difficult. I usually relish tracing a
mechanical/electrical problem caused by wear/tear and other natural causes.
Problems caused by human intervention can be much more difficult to find.

Charging systems on most permanent magnet alternator bikes are
pretty straightforward, there's usually only the stator, the >regulator/rectifier, and the battery that go bad. Sometimes the
magnets can come unglued from the rotor, or even more rarely, lose
their magnetism, although I have no idea if this particular bike
suffers from that malady.

I put it on charge for a couple of hours and then it started fine. A
multimeter on the battery terminals revealed 11.96v at idle rising quickly
to 12.6v with revs and then falling after that. The 3 yellow wires from the
alternator (site of previous 'repair') quickly became too hot to touch.

I will say my unscientific sampling of online woes about bikes with
dead batteries more often than not involve a good, albeit flat, battery >getting replaced by a new one, which then also becomes flat because the
root cause of the failure to charge was not determined. Also pretty
common is the stator or reg/rect being replaced without any testing
and since the original wasn't bad, the problem is still there...

Yes this can be where things start to get complicated eg.
Component A fails and causes component B to fail/melt/catch fire. On the
face of it, a smoking gun solved by replacing component B. Much Joy and
back-slapping is followed a week later by tears as the cycle of failure
repeats it's self.
--
Geoff
NTV 650
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From Newsgroup: uk.rec.motorcycles

On 27/08/2025 02:07, Mark Olson wrote:

Charging systems on most permanent magnet alternator bikes are
pretty straightforward, there's usually only the stator, the regulator/rectifier, and the battery that go bad. Sometimes the
magnets can come unglued from the rotor, or even more rarely, lose
their magnetism, although I have no idea if this particular bike
suffers from that malady.

You can add "rotor separates from its hub" to that list. DAMHIK,OK?
--

CHUMP #1 (CHarge Up Muppet)

Pip
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