Basil,
Go and read Red's battery FAQ about three or four times. Cycling the "old fashion way" is a really good way to screw up your batteries. I used to think the same thing before I lost a plane to battery failure and was motivated to get eduacated.

Bottom line is you don't want them to go below 1.05 volts per cell and without a proper cycler there is no easy way to be sure this won't happen.