Starting issue

[Nocluejoe]

2007 gs500f

Unknown miles title says 4,000 a year ago.

Battery replaced in 2013

If I let the bike sit for a day I go to start and nothing a lil clicking but not constant the lights on the dash fade out headlights won't turn on nothing I hook up to a volt meter says 8-9 volts and climbs to 12 and says 95% charged. If I try and start the bike with the meter on bike starts right away.

Everything is pointing to a bad battery right? Well I took it to advanced auto parts they tested my batter and they said its "good"

12.43v
201 cca

Went home started right up. Drove for 10 mins parked it and went inside to type this going to try again soon. Does anyone have any guess on what it might be? Maybe the connection was bad on the bike and taking it off and on fixed it? Could it be a starting issue?

[radodrill]

12.43V is a bit low; should be 12.8V or more just sitting and 13.1-13.6 fully charged.

A 1 yr old battery shouldn't be bad, but it is possible.  Bad connections could easily have been the culprit, but if the problem persists, check the charging circuit as well.

[BockinBboy]

My experience with low batteries says the GS needs about 12.6v to start confidently ... Anything under that, you are going to have a tough time.

- Bboy

[Nocluejoe]

That's what I was thinking should I disregard what the test said and get a new one? It started right up again i was leaving the kill switch on overnight but that shouldn't cause my battery to die that's the only thing I can think of

[kamikazepsi]

12.43V is a bit low; should be 12.8V or more just sitting and 13.1-13.6 fully charged.

A 1 yr old battery shouldn't be bad, but it is possible.  Bad connections could easily have been the culprit, but if the problem persists, check the charging circuit as well.

a fully charge battery at rest should be at 12.6.....automotive batteries have 6 cells and each cell is 2.1 volts.  the 13+ volts you see at rest is just a surface charge.  the battery will eventually settle down to 12.6 as the chemical reaction penetrates into the plates. 

[adidasguy]

Possibly a battery that won't hold a charge.
Kill switch position does nothing with the bike off (via the key).
Could you be leaving it the key in PARK? That position leaves the tail light on, which will drain the battery in a day.

[Nocluejoe]

No the key is on off seems to be a battery issue then

[Suzuki Stevo]

Even when a MC battery is at 100% there is not a whole lot of reserve left for any kind of starting issues, just sitting not being ridden for a while, old gas. MC battery's suck by virtue of their size, if you left a fully charged MC battery next to a fully charged full sized battery and left them for a few months, the MC battery would go dead from just sitting there, while the car battery would probably start a car. The whole battery/charging aspect of MC's is far less robust than any situation in an automotive application, at best a MC electrical system is just enough to get by.

[Crasm]

Is it a sealed unit or one that requires maintenance??
If its the latter check the cell levels and if there low top them back up to the max mark with
Deionised water , could be thats all it needs