Monday, June 22, 2009

Argus Battery Bug for Motorcycles




Back in 2007 while walking the floor of the SEMA show in Las Vegas I discovered a product called the Argus Battery Bug. It was a cool little unit that was marketed as a way to monitor your batteries health. The only issue with the unit they were showing at the time was that is wasn’t very practical for motorcycle use. I actually spent about 20 minutes with the engineer at their telling him what would like to see and he actually took notes!

Fast-forward to 2008 and I stopped by Argus booth and was surprised that both guys working the booth remembered me and then they excitedly showed me their new Motorsports Battery Bug. This one would be able to be mounted away from the battery and had a much better cable that could be routed in a manner to place the display somewhere it could be viewed.

There is not much to review on this product. It shows the voltage on the battery and the percentage of life left on the battery to start the vehicle. In a nutshell you’ll be buying piece of mind. It allows you at a glance to understand that you are first of all not taxing the electrical system with electrical components and that when you shut the bike down or right before you start, you’ll have enough cranking power to accomplish that task.

I recently installed one on my ST1300 right before my trip to Alabama and it provided me with quiet comfort that all was good with my battery. In the past I’ve never been sure when my battery might give up the ghost, so it will be interesting to see exactly how well the Argus Battery Bug serves its purpose. I’ll report back when I find out more, but I am pretty sure this will be a “long term” review.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No need for a long-term review of the Battery Bug, Rob. It's in the August edition of Wing World. The design changes you noted came as a result of Argus consulting with me about the product since 2005. They were at the AAPEX show that year. I put the bug (pun intentional)in their ear to enter the powersports market. But as you saw, the product needed modification. The test algorithm has also been changed to better suit batteries in the size we riders use.

Regards,

Stu Oltman
Sr. Technical Editor
Wing World Magazineyedge