Best battery for a remote paddock starter ?

Any comments / advice re the best battery for a paddock starter (ie electric starter rollers) ?

Lithium appeals due to the cranking amps and light weight (loading / unloading the van) but even then, I’ve no idea which type, brand, etc.

Any experiences to share from you racer boyz ?

Deep Cycle Marine/RV battery.

Sorry! I'm no help! I have run mine of an old lorry battery & then the one recommended by Solo for a twin motor starter. All bloody heavy. Built a 240v set for the garage to start the bikes at home. Still have the twin starter Solo rollers, my brother brings them to race meetings, the big girl kills it. Now I have a Foxley starter, an engine with a go cart wheel. You need a helper but im suprised how well it starts the bike. Mind you not as suprised as the helper who gets peppered with bits of rubber.
And for belt & braces I still have the van rollers!

Chris said:

Sorry! I'm no help! I have run mine of an old lorry battery & then the one recommended by Solo for a twin motor starter. All bloody heavy. Built a 240v set for the garage to start the bikes at home. Still have the twin starter Solo rollers, my brother brings them to race meetings, the big girl kills it. Now I have a Foxley starter, an engine with a go cart wheel. You need a helper but im suprised how well it starts the bike. Mind you not as suprised as the helper who gets peppered with bits of rubber.
And for belt & braces I still have the van rollers!

Click to expand...

Foxley starters are great and start my big ‘un easily. I need a one-man operation though.

My apologies Nigel, if you think this might qualify as hijacking your thread. This might not be any help, but it was fun, and a little nostalgic, to sort through old race pictures to find suitable ones of the starter. This is a starter system that I used regularly to start several of my race bikes, including 920 Nortons, by myself. All were set up so that once they were warm, they would start and run at idle with no hand on the throttle. For the first cold start, I could always find someone willing to help. And with a little stretching, I could manage to hold the throttle and operate the starter at the same time, if I had to. But it was pretty awkward, particularly pulling the starter out with one hand, so I tried to avoid that. By the '80s I was no longer going racing alone, so usually had someone available to handle the starter. The starter itself is an industrial Chrysler heavy duty item, driving through a gear reduction box, and run on 24 volts by two deep cycle lead acid batteries in series. It was originally built by a guy in the San Francisco Bay area to start top fuel drag bikes, and was a fair bit of overkill for my needs. I put it together sometime back in the late '70s, and it is still going strong. The cart was my first project when I was learning to gas weld aluminum. If I were doing it again, I'd use Li-Fe batteries, and build a much more compact cart, and maybe a modern starter with built-in reduction gearing. In any case, here are a couple of pictures to show the starter itself, and one showing it packed up in the cart, ready for use. That last one is from the AHRMA race at Deland, Florida, in 2000. We used the starter for both the Norton hidden behind Stu, standing, and the Yamaha special next to him. Steve, shown working on his bike, normally just bump started his Norton.







Ken

No hijack detected there Ken.

Great pics and story !

Sorry no help either, uses a German made (motorradstarter.de) 230V 2,4 kW one as we always have power in paddocks.
Less than 20 kg. Can be used singlehanded. I you look closely at my avatar, you can see it.