This post is not about the Vespa. It’s about the Honda Fit on the left side of the picture. And everything I’m about to share is my dog Lily’s fault. I happened like this…
On Thursday morning Lily, Junior and I piled into the Fit and went to the park. While there, she took a predictable dump and me, being the responsible dog owner I am, gathered up the logs in a plastic bag. Since there were no public garbage cans available for disposal I tied the bag off and put it on the floor of the Fit to dispose of at home. After some energetic tennis ball retrieval games we piled back into the car and went home.
Fast forward to Saturday morning when I get into the Honda Fit to look for my raincoat — I forgot the bag. Two days of roasting temperatures transformed the inside of the car into some sort of cosmic level fragrance center. It was bad.
Working quickly while holding my breath I get the windows down and abandon the car for later in the day.
Fast forward to Saturday evening when I go outside to close the car windows. As soon as I opened the car door and the dome light didn’t come on I knew what happened. Lily made me leave the key in the ignition in the on position all day long and killed the battery.
Bad dog.
Enter the Micro-Start Mini XP-5 from Antigravity Batteries. I bought one of these to keep with the Vespa so if I’m on the road and my battery dies I can just jump start the scooter. It’s about the size of my iPhone, comes with a nice little case that includes jumper cables and a variety phone and mobile device charger cords. For $99 I thought it was a good investment.
With a dead Honda Fit in the driveway I had a couple choices — move a lot of stuff around so I could get the van in a place where I could jump the Fit, or try out the Mini XP-5.
Took but a few seconds to plug the short jumper cables into the battery, connect it to the Fit, and turn the key. The car started right up.
Lily’s not a bad dog afterall.
This is the smallest battery made by Antigravity Batteries but it will jump start engines up to 1600ccs. The slightly larger ones will start a V8 engine a dozen times. Or recharge an iPad that many times. It’s a pretty cool piece of technology to have available should you need power.
A trick I use is to put the dog bag inside the gas cap cover. If you do forget it no harm no foul. Dump it at the gas station next fill up. No smell in the car.
How did you get so smart? That’s a great idea! It’s apparent the sunshine and easy living in the Keys hasn’t rotted your brain.
I have the XP-5 model and right after charging it up, I used it to start the Beemer 15 times in a row. An impressive device. I have since used it to jumpstart other vehicles up to a small V8. This has found a permanent place on the bike. I haven’t used it to charge the iDevices as I have other battery packs but I like having the ability.
It is impressive. I’m surprised I don’t see more of them around. It’s great peace of mind for a relatively affordable price. If I were still backpacking and wanted to make sure my phone was always charged I would have one of these Antigravity Batteries.
Nice review, must get myself one of these….
I wonder if there’s a way/connector to allow one of these to function as power source for a laptop….perhaps hook it to an inverter, to which you plug in the regular adaptor for the laptop…hmmm
Antigravity has a model designed for that and outputs up to 20 v and comes with laptop adapters.
I didn’t see Alan’s comment below. That’s the model.
I think one of the batteries will run a laptop. Especially useful for motobloggers on the road. Now you just need to add a satellite connection for internet.
Definitely worth having one. Especially when you’re piloting a URAL! 😉
Steve, we have the xp-1. Jayne insisted we get it after I left the keys in Royalstar. It has the 19v port for a laptop. We never leave home without.
They are neat little devices. Kim wants one for the car now.
I bought the XP3 after Richard’s review. I like to travel light but also have power to recharge the iPhone. My neighbor is getting one as a wedding gift as he got so jealous of mine when he had to keep borrowing it to start his elderly Crown Vic police car. These things work as advertised.
A friend at work was always leaving the lights on in his car. He had one of those huge go start batteries in his trunk. One of the Antigravity batteries would have been far easier to lug around.
Nice wedding gift!
Well, I learn the most valuable things from your mishaps Steve. Thank you.
Well, you know what they say, even a bling squirrel finds an acorn every now and then. That’s how I feel when I find something like this though it seems plenty of others had already found it!
” Lily made me leave the key in the ignition in the on position all day long and killed the battery.”
Lily did this? The new dog in the household did this? C’mon Steve…we all have either left a door open (with the interior light turned on) or something else equally dumb. Blaming
poor defenseless Lilly, how could you?
However it’s obvious you had a quick charge solution; and it my own case would have simply hooked up the battery charger to my truck.
Don’t know if those devices are sold here in Canada. Like many things available stateside, probably not.
Poor Lily??? She leads the life of Riley and acts as if she runs the place. Poor Lily indeed.
I could have used the van to jump the Fit but it would have required some work to get it in position.
I thought everything was better in Canada??
Everything is better in Canada.
Only if you can afford to live here.
My now American citizen redneck younger brother now living in Texas was once heard to remark he would have to have an income four times what he was earning staeside to just survive in Canada. And his earnings then were well over US$100,000! Our income tax rates are closer to the UK in comparison. Keep in mind Canada is sustaining a far better standard of living than the USA on a total population of roughly 32-million people.
The sole importer for the product into Canada sells only the most expensive model, natch! And adhesive labels have been applied so the prodct has descriptions in both French (Quevecois) and English.(Canadian packaging laws ) Searching revealed the same product is available from Amazon Canada for C$113.95 plus shipping plus 13% sales tax
Texas? Your brother ran a long way for the complete American experience.
The 32 million population offers opportunities that are hard to fathom in the states I guess. My perception of Canadians is guided by what I assume is an accurate representation of your citizenry — the Trailer Park Boys television show. I’ve always pictured you like Bubbles Bryce only taller. He is the smartest buy in the park after all.
As far as the Anti Gravity battery goes — you can’t put a price on peace of mind. That’s what our marketing and advertising tells us all the time here so it must be true.
Trailer Park Boys eh? Sort pf degrading IMO. In any event we are more as upper middle class here. And yes, my brother lives in Texas, although in his case by way of London in the uK. Long Story.
Me, not even close to a Bubbles or perhaps a Bubba in the US.
As to how we exist, keep in mind most ofthe population lives within 800 miles of the U.S, border, so influences are often cross-border. You’d be hard pressed to find specific differences. For example vehicles with no front license plates as in your home state are similar to here in Canada, vehicles from Quebec have no front license plates. We have a headlights on at all times; national law, not so in the USA. Oh and our currency is
prnted on plastic, no “paper” currency, our smallest denomination of bill is $5.00 and as with all our bills coloured, differently. One dollar and two dollar coins, no pennies as all sales are round to the nearest 5 cents.
So we are different. We in Southern Ontario speak generally with an upper New York State accent as one friend who lives in Rochester noted.
Our politics do not consume our every waking hour and many are unable to name the prime minister (we exist more on the British system of governance) or the name of his wife and children. We hold federal elections once every four years, ditto municipal elections. And we are just different enough that many foreigners enjoy the country for what it is, and for the people. Very few ride their two wheeled transporation modes in the winter, for the same reason; weather and the abundanceo of salt on the roads. And we do enjoy ice cream, or at least I do, hence in the future a visit to the Creamery in State College at some future date is required. It used to be an easy drive across the internationa borderto go to the USA, now a passport is required. The other things about travelling to the US is ensure one has sufficient medical travel insurance; the US system is based upon ability to pay, here the government does pay for most services. it is not the ideal system,
Honestly I don’t think there is an ideal system anywhere.
Am thankful and grateful you were able to receive the assistance and surgery you required when you did. For many of us it means continued interesting blog notes as well as tales of your family, feelings and worldly experiences.
Trailer Park Boys is definitely an acquired taste. Kim and I fell in love with it. Not sure what it says about us but we both saw a lot of central Pennsylvania in that show — more than we did Canada. Trailer Parks and odd characters are a familiar experience here.
It’s been decades since I’ve been to Canada and then as a tourist at Niagara Falls. Can’t remember being anywhere else so my perspective on the country is absent and incomplete. And since my passport is not out of date I probably couldn’t visit anyway.
I’m no expert around our medical system or anyone else’s for that matter — but I have to believe that if I had shown up at the ER with no insurance or money, my treatment would have been identical. Where it would have changed is afterwards — I probably would not get into cardiac rehab without some sort of insurance. Could be wrong.
For now — onward!
I wonder how far a drained Tesla could go with one… not that I’m contemplating a Tesla, but two of my friends test drove them recently and were simply blown away.
Not far I bet. I’ve not paid much attention to Tesla other than the name so I don’t have much of a sense of what they are like aside from being electric. I’m waiting for hydrogen cars, or ones powered by a Mr. Fusion…
Thanks for the info on the Antigravity cells.. This will enable me to hang onto my Vespa battery now until it actually quits thus saving premature purchase of a new battery. It’s due to kark it very soon according to statistics. They look so incredibly useful.
There is a cheaper version of these badged “Fluron” would you know anything about these?
One way or another I’ll buy one.
My thoughts exactly. I have been making premature battery purchases for a long time. No more.
Don’t know anything about the Fluron brand. I would post a question at the ModernVespa.com forum. Lot’s of experience over there.
What a clever device. Looks like a good addition to the GTS.
Indeed. Batteries are a weak link on the scooter. This eliminates worry.
That is very impressive – such a tiny device and so much cranking power! Hey, if Lily were a Husky, you’d have her pull your car…
Thankfully, Lily doesn’t pull like that!