HD battery

[MadDuck]

I am guessing they are a standard battery. Never needed to check before.

A beautiful day here today and I havent been on the bike like for ages as I dont ride in the rain (cant be asked cleaning the chrome).....

Now before putting all the gear on I turned the bike on and the lights are on and all looked good. Roll her out of the garage and gear up. No start!

I have a battery tender and took the battery out hooked it up and after 2 hours its telling me its fully charged. If a battery is fully gone how long should it take to recharge?

Question that springs to mind. The bike is fuel injected. Would not being ridden for a while be a possible cause for the non start? Blocked somethings?

PS: its a blimmin heavy thing to push up hill back into the garage

[schrodingers cat]

As a battery gets older it isn't uncommon for them to do flat esp in cold weather. The problem that can occur is that they can develop a faulty cell. The voltage will come up and the battery will claim inself to be charged but as soon as you try to draw higher amerage to cranck the bike over it won't have the poke.

Pretty rare for anything in the injection system to become fauly by sitting.

Air/spark/fuel - so long as you have all three it should run


PS - Rather than pushing the heavy bike up the hill why didn't you bump start it?

[MadDuck]

Pretty rare for anything in the injection system to become fauly by sitting.

Air/spark/fuel - so long as you have all three it should run


PS - Rather than pushing the heavy bike up the hill why didn't you bump start it?

Cheers. Thanks for that. I did start it last weekend to make sure the battery wasnt flat and it was fine.

PS: If I bump start her and it doesnt work I will need a pully system or a Hiab to get it back up the driveway...trust me on this

[schrodingers cat]

Cheers. Thanks for that. I did start it last weekend to make sure the battery wasnt flat and it was fine.

PS: If I bump start her and it doesnt work I will need a pully system or a Hiab to get it back up the driveway...trust me on this

Ok so the bike cranked?
Pull the plugs and check they are sparking. You should be able to hear the injectors clicking. Have you got fuel pressure?

Don't panic just work through things logically

[karmobRob]

Jump start it from car or another bike.......make sure + to + and - to -.If it starts OK battery is nakkerred

[Mom]

Cheers. Thanks for that. I did start it last weekend to make sure the battery wasnt flat and it was fine.

PS: If I bump start her and it doesnt work I will need a pully system or a Hiab to get it back up the driveway...trust me on this

It's not a driveway, it's a cliff face :pinch:

Will it start this morning Ducky?

[p.dath]

Alas the only way to really test a battery is with a load tester. Don't know about your garage, but I don't have one of those. It's hard to justify a tool you only use ocassionally.

I'd try charging it up overnight, and then take it into a workshop and ask if they would mind load testing it for you (it is a very quick thing to do).

Otherwise what you could try do is using the motorcycle as a load tester. Charge the battery up overnight. Measuer the voltage across the battery and then hit the starter button, and see what the voltage drops to. If there is a big drop the battery is probably stuffed.

[roadracingoldfart]

Alas the only way to really test a battery is with a load tester. Don't know about your garage, but I don't have one of those. It's hard to justify a tool you only use ocassionally.

I'd try charging it up overnight, and then take it into a workshop and ask if they would mind load testing it for you (it is a very quick thing to do).

Otherwise what you could try do is using the motorcycle as a load tester. Charge the battery up overnight. Measuer the voltage across the battery and then hit the starter button, and see what the voltage drops to. If there is a big drop the battery is probably stuffed.


Good post , also make sure the charger used has the grunt to charge a battery bigger than a watch cell. The main retail flogged crap cant charge a decent sized battery at all.

[Grubber]

Might pay to ascertain if the bike actually turned over at all first. If it did and would'nt start then i would say there is fuel problem or spark problem, if it didn't turn over then it may be battery or it may be starter. My Harley (when i had them) were chronic for bad starters. Bit of a design fault i think in the starter itself. There was a standard repair for them but it's a while since i had mine fixed so can't actually remember what it was.

[bsasuper]

Charging a motorcycle battery is best done at only 1 amp , so most of the retail ones have more than enough grunt.

[Scouse]

Buy a battery Doctor and leave it conected to the bike at all times when you are not riding they are desiged to keep your battery at full charge by topping up when the battery drops below a certain level then stopping when that level is reached and then to constantly monitor the battery you just clip the male/female conectors together at the end of each ride. its supposed to make gell batteries in particular last longer.

[FROSTY]

Good post , also make sure the charger used has the grunt to charge a battery bigger than a watch cell. The main retail flogged crap cant charge a decent sized battery at all.
mate I don't agree there. For deadish batteries (No life showing at all) I use the cheap red shed battery chargers.For the first couple of hours they flick the green charged light on and the orange charging light on and off. But they seem very well to get the job done.
The new chargers are multiple charge.good for those sealed batteries

[roadracingoldfart]

mate I don't agree there. For deadish batteries (No life showing at all) I use the cheap red shed battery chargers.For the first couple of hours they flick the green charged light on and the orange charging light on and off. But they seem very well to get the job done.
The new chargers are multiple charge.good for those sealed batteries

You may have a good one Frosty but many i have seen are not up to the job . As with anything there is the mindset that "i wont use it much so i will buy a cheap one" and thats the start of what i call "buying the wrong tool for the job".
Ive seen some non metred chargers that put out a total of 500 - 600 mv and they are labelled as a "home charger for all vehicle batteries". Some torch recharging packs put out more than that .

[FROSTY]

You may have a good one Frosty but many i have seen are not up to the job . As with anything there is the mindset that "i wont use it much so i will buy a cheap one" and thats the start of what i call "buying the wrong tool for the job".
Ive seen some non metred chargers that put out a total of 500 - 600 mv and they are labelled as a "home charger for all vehicle batteries". Some torch recharging packs put out more than that .
I'm hearing ya dude. This time of year is really hard on batteries (yuu go figure) so I have a couple of the red shed chargers going all day long. I had one permanantly fitted/wired to the yard Jumper battery--Untill I forgot base priciples re water and electricity. DUUU
I think its the tiny trickle that works best for bringing jap lead acids back to life

[davereid]

Charging a motorcycle battery is best done at only 1 amp , so most of the retail ones have more than enough grunt.

Yep.

Ideally, batteries require two separate charge cycles. Firstly, they should be charged up to about 14.9-15.5 volts. Then the charger should reduce charge to float them at about 13.8 volts.

The exact figures depend on the type of battery (Lead acid, GEL, AGM etc), and also on the capacity of the battery, the shape and area of the plates, and even temperature.

But the alternator on your bike does not consider any of these things, it just ramps up to about 14.5 volts, and chucks out as much current as it needs to maintain this voltage.

So motorcycle battery manufacturers make the battery as tolerant as possible to cope with a wide range of charging regimes.

Even a tiny charger, that is rated at only 1 amp will charge a vehicle battery, as long as it has a terminal voltage of (about) 14.5 volts.

So all the ones at Supercheap will be fine, as long as you have the time to wait. For example, the 200 amp/hour battery on my boat, if fully discharged would need more than a week...

The main problem with cheap chargers is that they are often completely unregulated. This means that sometimes they don't have a terminal voltage high enough to do the job.

And sometimes they have a terminal voltage that is much higher. This is a problem, as while the battery is heavily discharged and drawing lots of current, these chargers will be OK (as long as they don't melt.)

But when charging is complete, the poor old battery is no longer drawing much current. So it cops the full 16-18 volt output of the cheap charger. Soon the battery will have too many electrons, and it will start to gas, producing hydrogen. This is very hard on a battery, especially if done for a long time.

"Battery tendas" are designed to have a terminal voltage much lower than the gassing point of the battery, so they are a useful tool if you don't use your vehicle often.

The other thing that a charger can do is damage your bikes electrics if you do not remove the battery before charging.

Many chargers do not output pure DC. You get rectified AC, which is just fine for a battery. But the "peak" voltage is higher than the rated voltage. A charger that has a nominal 16 volt DC output, may in fact have a peak output of 23 volts !

That's the voltage it will be trying to apply to your battery, and all your bikes electrics if they are connected while charging with this kind of charger.

Some smaller bikes have a shunt voltage regulator. It will try and regulate the battery charger.

If it loses, you get to buy a new regulator. If it wins you get to buy a new charger.


Even some larger bikes will be extremely stressed by having a big, unregulated charger connected while the battery is in the bike.

My suggestions ?

1. A small unregulated charger is just fine, as long as you keep an eye on it, and remove it from the battery when its charged.

2. If you don't have a charger specifically designed and rated for use while the battery is in the bike, always remove the earth lead or battery from the bike before you charge.

3. Ride your bike every day so you don't need to charge it.

[scumdog]

I have an old charger from the 60's (or even 50's), the type that has a 6v - 12v switch, use it on everything including the bikes and had no problems ever, guess I'm lucky!
Throw it on the bikes during winter every four- six weeks or so for 4-hors or so if they're not being used much or just sitting, as they do when the rain is cold and the roads icy.