Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
I'm running 6x 400 farad caps alone on my CBR600, and it starts every time. You have very little time to waste in starting the bike once you turn the ignition on, and only 1 shot to start. I have no problem with this in daily use, but if the bike sits for more than 3 days, I have to put it on the trickle charger or else it won't start on the 4th day. I'm willing to put up with these limitations since bump starting is always an option if the caps ever did fail to start the bike.
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Most supercaps will leak. The difference between high-grade brands like Maxwell, poorer brands like Samwha or Nippon, or no-name copies, is the rate of leakage. (Samwha even quotes, for a fully assembled 66.6F pack, a leakage rate of up to 50% after 15 hours.)
It holds 12.0-12.3 volts (and crank) for the next 48 hours if the engine is not started or no trickle charging is applied. In my case, if there is not enough sunlight to feed the solar charger. But after 48 hours with no engine run, things get murky. If outside temps are too low, even quicker than 48 hours. Available battery power may fall too low and crank too slowly.
For this reason, a supercap pack is a gimmick. Most people do not care having to jump start during some freezing weather, they value reliability above a few pounds shaved from the vehicle. Or they may use a smaller, lighter lead-acid battery from Varley or Odyssey in place of a standard one.