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[CVODON]

I checked this afternoon, no one in the two counties I live in or close to  that I contacted sell Deka brand batteries. I do not take someone on here saying that Deka makes HD batteries as the gospel either, I toured the Louisville Johnson Controls plant one day and watched them ship HD branded batteries out on pallets. Two local places I contacted do have Interstate Brand Batteries that have a 6 month warranty, both places have to wait until the "battery guy" comes in next week to have him go or no go on warranty. Neither place stocked the HD size for my bike. In my area you can buy a HD battery 7 days a week. I am all for different brands if they are equal, but I have started to be more careful of items that have to be ordered the first time, because if I need another it would need to be ordered again and batteries fall under the "When I want one, I want it Now" items.
Just my opinion.

[iski]

That "hot air" coming from HD has got to be better than nitrogen.

 
Ride Safe,
Fired00d
 

 
Yes it is,  The MoCo koolaide is so addictive to some, they will never break the habit.  After all, the first step to recovery is acknowledging the problem.   

Recall a lot of years back, local HD service manager says, you don't come in "all dressed up."  Asked him what he meant, had no idea.  He said - some people wear their HD t shirt, pants, boots, belt, hat, keychains, watches - they must "dress" before they ride.  Said you are just wearing regular clothing, not Harley, except for your hat.  I found that amusing - am easily entertained.  After that I began to notice that, yep at a HOG meeting it is a sort of fashion show.  Not that there is anything wrong with that. I have a ton of HD logo stuff.  I wear it a lot.  But I do not HAVE to wear it when I ride.

As to batteries, Jerry nailed it as usual on HD parts.  HD puts out bids, there are only a few companies that can make them, like Deka.  On the newer fairing bikes you need to be a spelunker to change out the damn battery anyway, they hid them so far under all the junk.

[grc]

I checked this afternoon, no one in the two counties I live in or close to  that I contacted sell Deka brand batteries. I do not take someone on here saying that Deka makes HD batteries as the gospel either, I toured the Louisville Johnson Controls plant one day and watched them ship HD branded batteries out on pallets. Two local places I contacted do have Interstate Brand Batteries that have a 6 month warranty, both places have to wait until the "battery guy" comes in next week to have him go or no go on warranty. Neither place stocked the HD size for my bike. In my area you can buy a HD battery 7 days a week. I am all for different brands if they are equal, but I have started to be more careful of items that have to be ordered the first time, because if I need another it would need to be ordered again and batteries fall under the "When I want one, I want it Now" items.
Just my opinion.

Don, Deka sells that battery under their own name, but they also sell it to other distributors under their names.  So while you may not be able to find one locally with the Deka label on it, you may be able to find it under one of the many other names.  Big Crank is one such name, for instance.  And btw, you are absolutely correct that the battery Deka sells to consumers and the aftermarket is not the same battery Harley uses.  The terminals are slightly different, and there is a small difference in the amp hour ratings (a number that isn't nearly as important as CCA for a starting motor battery).  That doesn't mean they haven't also made a proprietary battery for Harley that they don't sell direct to consumers.  Kind of like how Dunflop makes the Harley branded tires and doesn't sell them direct to consumers.  I'm not saying that's the case here, but it happens a lot in the vehicle manufacturing arena.  If someone wanted to play detective and spend a lot of time researching, there are ways they could find out who actually manufactured the battery that came with the bike.  As I noted before, it's not worth the effort because batteries are just a commodity and the ones that have Harley on the case aren't necessarily any better (or even as good as) some of the other batteries on the consumer market.

I've found that buying online isn't much of a problem unless you walk out in the morning, find the battery kaput, and just have to ride that day.  Many places ship immediately on receipt of the order, and I've always received fresh units no more than a month past the manufacturing date.  But the point is well taken, if you absolutely have to have it right now, it may be harder to find locally versus whatever might be sitting on your Harley dealers shelf (check the mfg date).  Of course if this ride you must take is on a Sunday, most likely you won't find the local dealer open, at least not in my neck of the woods.  That stuff ceased back with the Great Recession.

In an emergency you can often find something that will fit and work at many auto parts stores or even at Wally World. 

Jerry

[CVODON]

Once again Jerry you are correct in all you said, We are lucky here in that at least three dealers open 7 days a week.
Have a good one.