This doesn't add much to the discussion but wanted to chime in anyway....
This past summer I was touring the Rockie Mountains and my OEM battery decided to give up after a cold night. Came out in the morning and nothing when I hit the starter, not even a solenoid click. I finally got a jump (gee thanks AMA, for no help). The nearest battery was a Yamaha dealer 120 miles away. It was a bit tense as I had to ride the bike over a mountain pass with little traffic and no services close. I was not sure if the engine stopped for any reason that it would restart. Can you even bump start these bikes anymore?
Long story short, I got to the Yammie dealer to find out the battery was a yuasa wet cell. They had to put acid in and charge it before I could install it. I did the install since they would have charged me at least an hours labor at pretty high rate. That was fine as I did the swap in about 15 minutes and the RT started right up and has been doing fine since.
I'm torn as to whether I should replace the yuasa, or just leave it in as it's been starting and charging fine. With snow on the ground here, I'm unable to ride for a week or more at a time and keep the battery on a tender and it's been fine. I now carry a jump starter with me all the time as I'm not confident the bike won't strand me again.
Never engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man.
Grumpy wrote:I'm torn as to whether I should replace the Yuasa, or just leave it in as it's been starting and charging fine.
Yuasa batteries are usually pretty reliable. One drawback with a wet flooded battery is obviously checking the electrolyte level. Plus, where is the breather pipe routed to on a bike which would normally have a gel sealed battery. Then, there is the risk of spillage/leakage of battery acid.
I've got a Yuasa wet flooded battery on my Yamaha Xj650. The next new one is likely to be an AGM version.