Hi All -

I ran into an interesting problem, the bike was dead the other morning! It was probably 50 degrees outside and the bike had been sitting for 2 days. The battery is brand spanking new -- it is not on a battery tender as I live in an apartment complex. Does anyone have any ideas as to why this happens?

I put the bike in 3rd gear and push started it....it turned over fine once the alternator put a little juice back into the battery and the bike hummed right up, I revved it a little and rode it around the parking lotto charge up the battery a bit. But man oh man that was a rought morning.

Ideas?

Check the fluids in your battery. Make sure your water levels are at their appropriate full marks and ride it around more than just the parking lot. Keep the revs up above 5000 and ride around for at least half an hour. If it was a brand new battery it might not have had a very strong charge on it.

Alfa's right,
If the battery has just been activated w/distillate(water)and not fully charged, you're not going to get very much performance out of it. As Alfa said, check your water level, and if it were me, I'd put it on a trickle charger for a day at 1-2 amps. If that doesn't bring the battery up to full charge, get back to us on the Forum.

Here's another good one, when you check the fluid level, make sure you check the level in each cell separately.  I discovered, the hard way, that having one full cell and 5 empty ones is not good for battery life 

Invest in a good motorcycle battery tender.... It's $40, keeps your battery in shape all winter, can be used to top it off in the summer, AND is way cheaper than a replacement battery 

Quote from: daneilah on March 21, 2006, 01:44:49 PM
Invest in a good motorcycle battery tender.... It's $40, keeps your battery in shape all winter, can be used to top it off in the summer, AND is way cheaper than a replacement battery 

If you paid $40 for the charger or more than $40 for a new battery you're getting ripped off.  Wal-Mart carries two different float-mode 12v trickle chargers for $18.  A new battery is $30 at Wal-Mart or $27 at bikebandit.

-M

Did you turn the parking light on accidentially when locking the forks?  It's easy to do. 

Quote from: Egaeus on March 21, 2006, 08:37:22 PM
Did you turn the parking light on accidentially when locking the forks? It's easy to do.

Yep. Or is it locked up in a garage and you leave the keys in? I have had my battery drained when I accidentally left igniton on for a weekend. Definitely sounds like some trickel current there.