Motorcycle batteries are used to provide electricity for the motorcycle’s starter motor, and play quite an important role in the motorcycle’s power system. According to relevant data, the amperage of common motorcycle batteries on the market is between 5A-25A, and the number of volts is generally 12V, of course, the specific motorcycle’s amperage should also be based on the motorcycle’s specific conditions.
Ambient temperature is one of the main factors affecting the amperage of a motorcycle battery, especially in a cold environment, the molecular movement in the electrolyte inside the motorcycle battery will be slowed down, which leads to a decrease in the conductivity of the electrolyte, which in turn increases the resistance inside the motorcycle battery, and naturally, its amperage will be reduced to a certain extent, so you should be careful when driving your motorcycle in a cold environment.
Motorcycle batteries that have been in use for a long period of time and are more severely aged will have a decrease in amperage, which is understandable because as a motorcycle battery ages, there is a certain degree of depletion of the active substance inside the battery, which results in a decrease in the strength of the current supplied by the battery when discharging, which is something you need to be aware of. Therefore, in order for your motorcycle to function properly, you should always keep an eye on the status of your motorcycle battery, even if you replace it with a more severely aged motorcycle battery.
Different motorcycle batteries are not constructed exactly the same, such as the thickness, area, material and construction of the plates, all of which have an impact on the battery’s amperage. For example, a larger plate area will increase the contact area for chemical reactions compared to a smaller plate area, so the former can produce more amperage to a certain extent, all other things being equal, but of course, the difference in construction is specially designed by the manufacturer, so you can’t just modify it.
The instruction manual of motorcycle batteries often shows parameters such as amperage, ampere hours and cold cranking current, although these concepts are very similar, however, there are some differences in the essence of these concepts, you need to pay attention to differentiate between them, which will help you to understand your motorcycle batteries in depth, and also provide you with a reference when selecting a motorcycle battery.
The amperage of a motorcycle battery is used to describe the current strength of the battery during operation, which is represented by the symbol A. This parameter is usually used to describe the performance of a motorcycle.
Unlike amperage, ampere hours describes the total amount of current that a motorcycle battery can continue to provide over a period of time, such as a 24Ah motorcycle battery indicates that the motorcycle battery can continue to work for 2 hours at a current intensity of 12A, i.e., the amperage can be converted to ampere hours by the following formula, namely
The cold start current is somewhat similar to the ampere hours because the cold start current refers to the total current output of the battery for a sustained period of 15 seconds at a temperature of 0° F. Although there is some similarity in the definitions, the cold start current emphasizes the fact that it is running at 0° F for 15 seconds, whereas the ampere hours do not emphasize this, in other words, the cold start current is a better response to the ability of the motorcycle battery to start a motorcycle at a low temperature environment ability to start a motorcycle at low temperatures.
The conversion between cold cranking current and amp hours is more complicated because the conversion between amp hours and cold cranking current is different for motorcycle batteries made of different materials and the conversion rate between cold cranking current and amp hours changes as the life of a motorcycle battery decreases.
