Cold Weather - Bad for Batteries?

[ixolas]

Glad you found it.. now I feel dumb though..lol.  oh well it's nothing new to me.
Sometimes the plates inside the battery come apart and short out the battery, or the water levels may be low, have you checked that?  As you said it could be your alternator but the way to check would be to get it running then use a volt meter to check the voltage (don't currently know what it should be, but maybe a guru will chip in here), if its running the right voltage then it is indeed your battery.. if its under the standard voltage its your alternator, at least this is the procedure in cars. 
As said above, automotive battery technology has been around for a long time and there really isn't a vast difference in the top dollar batteries compared to the mid to lower end ones except the price.  Do you have extra lights and stuff on your bike? that might cause the alternator to not produce enough juice to recharge your battery properly.
Hope that helps you.