This question is for the more electrically knowledgeable folk (basically 95% of people on this earth!) on this site.

For the upcoming race season I'll be running total loss due to some unexpected thermal activity inside a couple electrical connector blocks, they were nicely melted!

My question is, I have a lithium ion battery of 2.3ah, that I've used for the past couple of years when I had a complete charging system installed. Would this capacity be enough to last roughly 15-20 minutes of racing?

Yes. We ran a pre-injection SRAD with a stock battery running total loss and it was 100% fine. We did however put the bike back on the charge once it came back in from racing just to be sure everything was back to 100% before the next time out on track.

But would a standard lead acid battery have the same amp/hours? I'm fairly sure the battery I have has a smaller capacity than a standard battery.

I would suggest that to answer to your question is suck it and see.

With the battery fully charged, run the engine until (a) the battery voltage falls to 10 volts or (b) you reach anticipated race duration. (a) is the minimum voltage for a discharged battery, any lower and battery performance may be permanently compromised.

However, even if you reach race duration without the battery voltage falling below 10 volts, you should do a real race test run to ensure that lower than normal 14 volt battery voltage does not compromise the ignition system performance.

Race duration should include, delayed starts, track sessions longer that official races, rerun races that may not allow a lot of recharge time, etc, maybe a boost battery for starting.

Fixing the charging system might be a less complicated and more reliable option.

When I used total loss I got 5 races a day out of it - I did use a larger YT12 battery to start it and if I could get away with bumping it I would.

I would also keep a spare anyways.

Should be fine for 15-20 minutes I imagine. Most sporty road bikes come with approx 9-12ah batteries

Thanks for all the replies but I thought I'd play it safe and have purchased a larger lithium battery after speaking to a few guys I race with. I bought an SSB Powersport battery, apparently they can be recharged by a regular car charger.

http://www.ssbpowersport.com.au/tabid/2 ... fault.aspx