Changing the Aprilia Falco Battery
Like many early Falco buyers, my battery was
never really up its task. It struggled turning over the motor,
and after a couple weeks of sitting I was subject to getting the
dreaded dash reset. I never remember seeing a full voltage on the
on-board voltmeter (although I've seen inaccuracies in these when
checking against a handheld meter). Finally, after a long winter,
my battery was no longer reliably getting me home from work.
The stock battery is a Yuasa YTX14-BS,
of the maintenance-free variety. I've had decent life
out of Yuasa
batteries, but in this case a company called Westco made a replacement
with higher capacity (and rave reviews). Their price has recently
jumped from a competitive $60 to a high $90, but I was still willing
to try it.
Comparison of Published Battery Capacities
Spec | Yuasa
YTX14-BS* | Westco SVR-14 |
Reserve Charge Capacity | 14 A-h | 14
A-h |
Max Cold Cranking Amps | 200 A | 250 A
(+25%) |
*Others similar: PowerSource WD14-B,
Westco 12V14-B, etc |
Click on any image to enlarge it.
|
The battery is under the pilot's seat.
There is only one bolt holding it in, but you'll
need to hold the lock nut with a 10 mm socket
from inside the wheel well while you remove it.
I remove the negative battery terminal first,
then the positive. This reduces the chances
of shorting an energized screwdriver to the
frame.
|
Westco's tech line lists the
Falco as requiring a height spacer (SVR-14L), but
in fact, the SVR-14 battery alone is the same height
as stock. If your battery ships with the large black
plastic spacer shown here, discard it. The red cap in
the pictures contains two new terminal bolts and two
spacers that make using the side terminals easier.
|
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Before using the battery, you should absolutely
make sure it has been charged. Failure to intitially charge the
battery will reduce its maximum capacity forever. In the case of
the Westco SVR line of glass-mat batteries, they claim no charging
is necessary if the battery is less than six months old. I had no
real way of verifying the state of charge, so to be safe I put it
on my 2-amp charger for the morning.
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When replacing the battery, brighten the posts
with a little sandpaper, then connect the positive
terminal first. If you connect the main leads to the
top of the posts, you can attach accessories to the side
posts The supplied side-post spacers help you clear the
case, but you'll need to find your own bolts. Like car
batteries, the Westco terminals have a molded-in threaded
block that stays put while you're starting the screws.
With Yuasa (Diehards, etc) I have always fed a small
spring under the threaded blocks to force them to pop
up and meet the bolts.
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A good compilation of battery facts exists
on Bill Darden's Battery FAQ
website.
Note that the Westco battery
weighs about a pound more than the stock battery. This is probably
good for battery capacity, but if you are really, really performance
oriented you might look at the Mille-R battery. It weighs less
than the stock Falco battery (and has less reserve capacity).
Go back to the Falco
home page.