left my key in the GS's ignition yesterday for a few hours, and drained the battery.  Brand new battery.

Tried to jump with an old Toyota Corolla, and ended up draining the Toyota's battery too.  Bike didn't start, although it turned over.  Guess I pressed the starter too long.  The battery in the Corolla may be old.

So, now we have one more chance... with a Honda Pilot (SUV).  I can NOT drain this car's battery... important.  The Pilot is a new car, the battery is not more than 6 months old.

Should I try a hot jump, with the Pilot's engine running?  I'd heard you shouldn't run the car when you jump a bike cause you'll fry the bike.  Or should I try the cold jump again?  The cold jump worked when I first picked up the bike, with a Ford Taurus.  But this time apparently it didn't provide the bike enough juice.

Thanks

Does the battery have enough fluid?

You should take the battery out and charge it.  A dead battery can't take the rapid charge from the generator, it will damage your new battery.

battery on the GS is about three weeks old.  Fluid level is fine.

How do I charge the battery outside the bike?  I have a trickle charger at home, that I used over the winter.  Would that work?

It'll help, but you really need a Battery Tender Jr (they're about $20-30, depending on where you go).

Quote from: niteshade on April 11, 2006, 10:48:34 AM
How do I charge the battery outside the bike?  I have a trickle charger at home, that I used over the winter.  Would that work?

Sounds perfect to me.  but if the bike isn't starting after just 3-4 crank attempts, something else is wrong.

If you have to jump it, I'd hook up the car battery to the bike battery and just let them sit for just a little while with nothing running.  The charges will want to even out, and the car battery will basically start charging the bike's battery.  That'll help when you try to start her up.

How long would it take to charge the battery on a trickle charger?  Or on the Battery Tender Jr.?

And no way to jump with the Pilot?  (edit: oh, thanks Crunch).

Yes but will most likely take over night to work or longer depenting on how many AMPs the charger puts out.

My car chrager is 6amps and will charge up a car battery fully or to the point the car rolls over and starts normally after about 15hours.

Most likely your trickle chrager has a 1 - 2 amp output, bike battery is much smaller but put it on after supper and it should be ready when you get up in the morning.

As for taking it out of the bike to charge it, I don't have my GS yet   but on the old Honda 750 I had, you could do this with the battery in the bike. Just make sure its on the centre stand so that battery sits level

I believe the manual says to charge it for 10 hours at ~1 amps

10hours @ 1amp, sounds about right 

also something may be wrong if you couldn't jump it with a car already... jumping will work, it's not a deep cycle battery and needs to be charged slowly.  The amount of current dumped down its throat from being chaged by the bikes generator/your car's altenator just isn't good for it and will shorten its life.  The same goes for most (ie <$100) car batteries btw

Well, the cold jump worked fine.  The Honda must have a better battery than the Toyota.  I drove it home afterwards, and thankfully it didn't stall out.  Ride home didn't charge battery.  Neither did the trickle charger!  Not sure why, but I sure couldn't start this morning.  Trickle charger might just be a shitty model... it didn't do much over the winter for me either.

Going to borrow a friend's battery charger tonight and see if it works... we'll see.

At what RPMs does the bike start charging the battery?  Maybe I should just get it started and run the engine @ 5000 for a half-hour or something.

its not that the bike isn't producing enough current to charge the battery, its producing too much current to charge the battery... there is a reason you need to use a tickle charger to charge it over a long period of time, and charging it with the bike doesn't avoid that

get your friends trickle charger, charge it @ 1A for 10 hours... its the only way its going to work without hurting your battery

I looked at the trickle charger I used last night... 12v @ 1amp.  I had it on there for like 10 hours or so.  Any idea why it didn't do anything?  I could only honk the horn.

We were able to start the bike with a push down the street yesterday.

According to old threads I've read, peak voltage is generated between 2000 and 3000 RPM, if you search "charging RPM" you'll find all the info you could ever want. As for starting the bike and running it at 1500 or so, I'd highly recommend against it. It's an aircooled engine, you need airflow to keep it cool, or risk serious damage to your engine. Besides, as has been stated before my post, you can't charge a completely dead battery with your bike, that's what the battery tender is for. Good luck with all this!

You may have a short somewhere draining the battery.. I had an Acura Integra that did that.. Its a Buddha Loves You to track down...

You may also have a crap battery. I have bought car batts that after one total drain ( Like you did w/ the key on) they will never hold a good charge again.

Now bikes may be different, but its an idea!