So I was out of town for a month and came back and got a new chain and sprockets put on my bike yesterday.  The weather was a little shaky so I decided not to go on a long ride yesterday.  Today I went outside to start my bike so I could take a 150 mile ride through the mountains but the bike was dead.  The battery was reading 3 volts 

I just went out and got a battery tender to see if that will bring the life back.  If not, looks like i'll be getting a new battery. 

I've never had battery issues since I bought the bike back in November.  there was one time I caught the brake light on even after I removed the key but I caught it in time and put the key back in and turned it off.  I'm not sure what caused that to happen, but i'm guesing something similar happened yesterday after testing the new chain.

Oh well, hopefully after this I'll be in good shape for a while 

Good luck with it. I parked my moms car in the garage and left the lights on when I was 18ish, I went down in the morning to drive over to my girlfriend's house, but nothing. Before that when I was 15-16ish, before I really knew how things worked, my parents went into the store to grab something, and my and my previous girlfriend stayed in the car, I turned on the radio, and apperantly the headlights with it. Killed the battery then too. Lesson is, don't trust me with your battery.

What gear ration did you switch to?

I hope that fixes your problems for you.  I know the feeling when your ready to ride, then can't, sucks!

Where are you going on your trip?  Up the crest or taking the "long" way to Santa Fe and back?

Matt

Quote from: tt_four on June 11, 2009, 10:13:16 AM
Good luck with it. I parked my moms car in the garage and left the lights on when I was 18ish, I went down in the morning to drive over to my girlfriend's house, but nothing. Before that when I was 15-16ish, before I really knew how things worked, my parents went into the store to grab something, and my and my previous girlfriend stayed in the car, I turned on the radio, and apperantly the headlights with it. Killed the battery then too. Lesson is, don't trust me with your battery.

What gear ration did you switch to?

Yeah, it's a bad feeling.  I just went with the stock ratio.  My chain and sprockets were just in super need of a replacement.  I was thinking of going with a 45 tooth rear sprocket but used the calculator in the wiki and didn't want to sacrifice high end speed.

Quote from: LimeyYankee on June 11, 2009, 10:15:24 AM
I hope that fixes your problems for you.  I know the feeling when your ready to ride, then can't, sucks!

Where are you going on your trip?  Up the crest or taking the "long" way to Santa Fe and back?

Matt

I was going to take Route 66 to Tijeras, then head toward Mountainair and over to Belen and back up to my place.  Google maps says it's about 155 miles.

I did the long way to santa fe a few months ago.  I just wanted to try something different.  Now that it's a little nicer I wouldn't mind doing the Turquoise trail again.

Parasitic draw wil kill a mc battery faster than a car bettery size does matter. As long as you never drained you battery before you should have some cycles left to charge the battery. You should get an automatic charger for when leaving town that way your battery can stay at 12.6v the whole time.

Quote from: mach1 on June 11, 2009, 01:23:31 PM
Parasitic draw wil kill a mc battery faster than a car bettery size does matter. As long as you never drained you battery before you should have some cycles left to charge the battery. You should get an automatic charger for when leaving town that way your battery can stay at 12.6v the whole time.

Yeah, it started up like a champ after not being touched for over a month and ran just fine all day yesterday.  Today there was nothing... so i'm assuming it had to have been that a light or something was left on over the night or something.

Did you accidentally turn your key past locked to the "P" position?  I did that all the time when I got my first GS, the Honda I had before it had the lock position all the way back.

-Jessie

Quote from: BaltimoreGS on June 11, 2009, 03:22:24 PM
Did you accidentally turn your key past locked to the "P" position?  I did that all the time when I got my first GS, the Honda I had before it had the lock position all the way back.

-Jessie

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what happened

Yeah, I think Jessie's right.  Turn the key back too far and it's in the park position and your tail light will run the battery down overnight.  Hundreds of us have done it! 

Well, good news.  I left the tender on all night and it started up the first time.  I'll really have to be careful about that P position next time 

I was going to tell you as long as you don't have a damaged cell or the fluid is not low in the battery trickle charging it over a period of 24 hrs "usually" will bring the battery back to life and maintain a charge.

I left my battery unattended for over 8 months and it was at about 9 Volts and wouldn't even kick over the starter. I left it on my trickle charger for over a week and because the battery was still in good condition and the water had not evaporated from it, it was able to recharge the plates in the cells and it now maintains 12.9 Volts which is optimal and not bad for a 3 year old battery.