Zack
Junior Member
Yesterday I arrived from Toronto to beloved Sarasota, FL. Took Uber to our place counting on my trusty FZ6 sitting in garage. Before going to sleep I plugged in battery charger to get it ready for tomorrow. Normally I keep it on all the time but this time it was unplugged for 2 months. More about that later.
So today morning, need to go shopping groceries and take a ride. Starter said "kkkkkkrrrrrr" and that was it. Dead battery and it didn't want to take charge over night. I had feeling that this was coming. Battery lasted for about 4-5 years mostly sitting doing nothing. My bike is almost 10 years old and has 10940 Miles.
In Sarasota there is a good bike store, Granny's and now called Sarasota Powersports Inc. But I see people on forums getting batteries from Walmart. Nobody beats the price in Walmart so why would I be sucker and pay 65 bucks when there is battery for 40 dollars in Walmart thinks I? So I pull out old battery, bag it and call Uber. Before that I wrote on piece of paper that battery I need is ES12BS or other 2 letters xx12BS. That depends of manufacturer. By the way it's all made in China crap. Code I got was from forum, maybe even this one.
So taxi took me to Bee Ridge Walmart which is one of the biggest ones around. I find ES12BS on the shelf, last one. I compared the size with existing one and found that that one would never fit quite small battery compartment. I found that strange and I checked a book that was hanging on the cord. I found that battery the book calls for FZ6 is ES12AA. So I put battery back on the shelf. They don't have it. Sales person there was helpful and he told me how many of those each other Walmart has. So call Uber again, wen to University Ave. found battery, compared width and sure enough this one is much slimmer that ES12BS. All happy that I finally have a "right thing" I payed 45 bucks and run home.
At home first bad surprise. Battery can barely fit compartment but pushed it in. Worse terminals on the battery are upright and lugs on bike want them horizontal. Crap, I didn't look for that. So for next 2 hours I was trying to bend and cut bike's lugs so I can attach them to the battery. Finally I succeeded, didn't look nice but battery was finally connected. I go to close it up and put gas tank back and find that battery is about INCH to high! Can't fit.
So at that time I was really fed up with whole thing. Called Granny's, 2 Uber rides and 65 dollars later proper battery was installed in minutes with no issues. Battery I got was YT12B. I left battery for Walmart as a present for Granny's. Some stranded biker will need it ... but not FZ6 owner
So today morning, need to go shopping groceries and take a ride. Starter said "kkkkkkrrrrrr" and that was it. Dead battery and it didn't want to take charge over night. I had feeling that this was coming. Battery lasted for about 4-5 years mostly sitting doing nothing. My bike is almost 10 years old and has 10940 Miles.
In Sarasota there is a good bike store, Granny's and now called Sarasota Powersports Inc. But I see people on forums getting batteries from Walmart. Nobody beats the price in Walmart so why would I be sucker and pay 65 bucks when there is battery for 40 dollars in Walmart thinks I? So I pull out old battery, bag it and call Uber. Before that I wrote on piece of paper that battery I need is ES12BS or other 2 letters xx12BS. That depends of manufacturer. By the way it's all made in China crap. Code I got was from forum, maybe even this one.
So taxi took me to Bee Ridge Walmart which is one of the biggest ones around. I find ES12BS on the shelf, last one. I compared the size with existing one and found that that one would never fit quite small battery compartment. I found that strange and I checked a book that was hanging on the cord. I found that battery the book calls for FZ6 is ES12AA. So I put battery back on the shelf. They don't have it. Sales person there was helpful and he told me how many of those each other Walmart has. So call Uber again, wen to University Ave. found battery, compared width and sure enough this one is much slimmer that ES12BS. All happy that I finally have a "right thing" I payed 45 bucks and run home.
At home first bad surprise. Battery can barely fit compartment but pushed it in. Worse terminals on the battery are upright and lugs on bike want them horizontal. Crap, I didn't look for that. So for next 2 hours I was trying to bend and cut bike's lugs so I can attach them to the battery. Finally I succeeded, didn't look nice but battery was finally connected. I go to close it up and put gas tank back and find that battery is about INCH to high! Can't fit.
So at that time I was really fed up with whole thing. Called Granny's, 2 Uber rides and 65 dollars later proper battery was installed in minutes with no issues. Battery I got was YT12B. I left battery for Walmart as a present for Granny's. Some stranded biker will need it ... but not FZ6 owner
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