Well, I have seen some very hard use setups involving a123 (a brand name, they are lithium iron, or LiFE) and they do not seem to be too bad about balancing.

Given my experience most batteries only go out of balance for 2 reasons.

1, they are not matched cells, or have very wide mfg tolerances, no QC...

2, over discharge, or pushing the cells hard when they are nearly fully discharge.

As this battery will likely never be fully discharged I should be fine. I do plan to put a balance tap on it, just so I can check and balance charge via a hobby charger if needed.

Sorry for the off topic, but where in Arizona? If you happen to be going somewhere in northern Arizona, check out The Nitro Pit track (bad name, great track) if you can, it's worth visiting if you have extra time, and if you bring a 1/8 electric along with you it would be alot of fun, the layouts there are usually really wide open and fast.

Going to tempe, anywhere close?

Ok, finally going to pull the trigger on this project. Need to pull the battery out of the bike and measure the available space.

Thinking that I will have enough room to do 2 rows of 6 cells, and they will be standing up, on end. This should be about the same width and length of the stock lead acid battery but about half the height.

Since it will be a 4s3p pack I will arrange the cells are 3p in a row, and likely use powerpole connectors to series wire the 3p together. Going to use 12 gauge wire to attach everything, as I have alot of it.

Hippie sent me some thin kydex awhile back (thanks sweetie!) and I may use that to make a 5 sided box. Not sure how I will connectot the new pack to the main wires from the bike, currently it has ring terminals that bolt to the lead posts on the lead acid battery. I may just make some mounts on the side of the kydex carrier to bolt the stock main wires to and terminate the new pack with ring terminals. Not much of a starting load, as I have started this bike with a 5000 25c 3s lipo with 12 gauge wires, deans plugs and some aligator clips (my portable motorcycle "jump box")

Will have pics up in the next few days...

Hippie sent me some thin kydex awhile back (thanks sweetie!).

If you need more just let me know.

Thanks Mike, still working thru the last "care package" you sent me!!!

I would suggest against the andersons. They do poorly in vibrations unless you use the 75a versions. I would suggest bolted eyelets, castle type bullets, or double deans plugs before power poles.

Good advice. I think I have a decent selection of 5mm or maybe larger gold bullets somewhere. Need to dig them out. Will do the bolted eyelts for the interface with the bike wiring, as I do not want to cut the factory stuff off. Thanks JRH!

No sweat! Just didn't want to see you dealing with the crap I went through with the power poles.

I do vaguely remember reading a post of yours mentioning the powerpoles. I have a bunch of them, maybe got them from you? Just trying to come up with some use for them, maybe wiring up some flashlights? HAHA, I will find a use for them.