Dead battery?

I start all my bikes every few weeks in the winter. No tenders. I have 5 bikes with electric start -- haven't replaced a battery since 2013. I was in the garage 1/2 an hour ago, started all 5 no problem.

Here's what I do to keep batteries living: 1) start your bike every few weeks. 2) if you discharge a MC battery by accident (i.e you leave the lights or ignition on), don't jumper her, trickle it back with a 2 amp charge. 3) Clean connections annually, or invest in the red spray that prevents corrosion a the terminals.
 
Starting your bike every few weeks in the winter is probably the worst thing you can do, and idling them for even up to 5-10 minutes barely replaces the amount of power that was consumed to start them as almost all motorcycles (short of things like Goldwings) have very low amperage charging systems to begin with, but charging systems that put out barely anything at low/idle RPM as well.

Lets not even touch on the amount of wear that happens during the first few seconds in an engine containing higher viscosity oil designed for summer use every time you start it. Or the fact when the engine is shut down again without bringing the entire drivetrain, engine & exhaust up to full operating temperature (which can't happen sitting still) you're introducing moisture issues after shutdown, etc.

Just use a tender. Seriously. Even 1 single tender can do 5 bikes no problem...move it around from bike to bike every week, no problem.
 
Thank you all for the responses and suggestions. Turns out one of my friends owns a 5A charger and motorcycle jumper cables. I'll grab those from him and give both those methods a try this weekend.
 
Keep in mind a 12 ah battery should ideally be charged at a rate up to 1.2 amps
Charging at or below that rate will keep it healthy and make it last a long time.

A 5 amp charger could kill a motorcycle battery pretty quick.

I have a 1 amp “dumb” charger that I use to first-time charge up my brand new conventional batteries for my old CBs. It works when my tender jr will only flash red and not initiate charging.

Btw, what is the resting voltage of your battery right now?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I'm on year two of the Kapsco battery, no issues so far, i just put the trickle charger on it when the bike is not being used for a week or more.
 
So I got the charger from my buddy. It has a 2A option on it - nothing. Tried bumping it to 6A too - nothing. Tried changing modes from Regular to Deep Cycle and the AGM - nothing. The "check" light doesn't go away at all. Looks like its too late for this battery because the charger can't even detect it. Sucks.

Pic Here
 
This thread started nearly a month ago.
If you'd just gone and got it checked properly at the time you'd have known it was NFG and bought a new one.
Kids today....
 
TK4 said:
This thread started nearly a month ago.
If you'd just gone and got it checked properly at the time you'd have known it was NFG and bought a new one.
Kids today....
Click to expand...

Spilt milk, unfortunately. I know it was my mistake for not checking on the tender. I'm just trying to see if I can save a few bucks to offset my stupidity, but if buying a new battery is the only recourse then that'll be it :)
Forum Sponsor
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom