Battery Scam

So we've finished the 600/620 hybrid now and we've started to look at
ways of improving performance. There are a few things that we can do
to help, and one of those is the obvious of removing weight.

Last year I was the standard loom but with most stuff stripped off.
The 620 engine came with a loom that had all the unneccesary
wiring taken off it which saves a couple of lbs. Ducati switched
over to using a smaller battery around 2001 so we could make
some weight saving by replacing the old YB16AL-A2 battery
which weighs 11.5 lbs with the later YT12B-BS battery which
weighs 7.5 lbs - that's quite a good saving in weight alone.

The rules state it has to be OEM, so before we went and paid
Ducati prices for a cheap battery with Ducati written on the
side and paid lots of money, Mark headed down to the local
Ducati breakers to see if he had any.

The breaker did have some, in fact he had seven of them in
a pile in the corner. The reason for this is that he gets charged
a pound for each battery that he wants disposed of at the local
tip, under the European recycling/anti-waste/straight-banana
laws or something, so he just stock piles them up. He didn't
know the age or condition, or whether they were any good, but
Mark could have the lot for a tenner.

So Mark takes them all back to his work and sticks them on
the deep discharge/charge machine - basically a mofo Optimate -
to sort out the batteries and see which ones are any good.
Remember that this is the guy who has a workshop full of GT40s,
twelve at last count, so they know a thing or two about charging
batteries ;-)

At the weekend he turns up at mine with a tray of batteries.
The machine did the trick, although one was quite troublesome
and took a couple of goes, but we now have seven fully working
batteries sitting in the garage.

Apparently we're setting up a stall at the first race and sell them
for £25 a pop!

 

antonye wrote:

Sounds about right.

Kiran

 

Would that be Bike-enders, the brilliant place in Romford?

 

It would indeed, Jim is a diamond.

 

That's an "m" Kiran, not an "n"!

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

He's a Boon.

Hi ho silver...

 

thank you, Mr.Murray.