Charging Sealed Batteries

[dangerman]

My Yamaha owners manual states my bike is fitted with a sealed-type MF battery and that if it gets discharged it can only be recharged with a special constant voltage battery charger (at your friendly Yamaha dealer !!!).

Is this just a manufacturer's no-liablity super-cautiousness. What about using an ordinary charger on a low charge setting ??? If a constant voltage charge is needed are they readily available??

The lights on my bike can only be turned off with the key switch. The other day I inadvertantly switch my bike off using the kill switch and the lights stayed on. I noticed this an hour or so later and switch them off at the key.
When I next came to use the bike the battery didin't have enough ooph to get the motor going so I connected a set of jumper leads from a car battery, and the problem was solved.

I'm wanting to do some biking in remote places and am concerned at waking up to a flat battery. The best insurance I can think of is a set of jumper leads (and prayers for a passing vehicle). Are light-weight easy-to-store junper leads available for motorbike use or what kind of wire could be used to make a set ???

[Hitcher]

Crash start your bike and ride it for at least half an hour. That should do the trick just nicely. Slow charging is the go. If you get a wet cell battery excited it likes to give off gas, which can be a bit of a problem if the unit is sealed...

[vifferman]

Trickle charging isn't a problem - just use a battery charger that's smart, and isn't above the charging voltage that should be marked on your battery. I think from memory, mine says summat about 1 amp max for rapid charging, or 500mA for trickle charging.

It does tend to weep a little out of the rubber plug caps when charging, but that's partly because it's a stupid bike with the battery installed on a lean.

You probably can get some jumper cables small enough to carry; mine are, but I still prefer to bump-start it. Your bike should be a doddle to bump-start: just stick it in second, pull the clutch in, push it down the road, and jump on the seat (weighting the back wheel) at the same time as you pop the clutch out and back in again. Repeat till it starts. If you find a hill to run it down, stand up on the pegs, then drop your bum down onto the seat at the same time as you pop the clutch. Oh yeah - don't forget to turn the key and kill switch on first!

If an hour with the lights on is flattening the battery, it may be tired, or need a decent run to charge it up. When fully charged, a healthy new battery is around 13V, and an older one should be at least between 12 and 13, and the voltage shouldn't drop over a day or two of sitting. Mine currently drops to around 11.7 overnight, so it's a bit sad (courtesy of a defective R/R and using a car charger (5 amps) to charge it a couple of times).

[Paul in NZ]

No...

I'm afraid Yamaha is not pulling your todger. You have to recharge your sealed battery very carefully or you will bugger it up. Their charge / discharge characteristics are quite different to wet cell batteries and you will over charge it with a normal battery charger.

Sadly, the spotty faced, minimum waged, mouth breathing gimp they will give the job too at the bike shop won't know the difference or even care so they will just put in onto the megga zap 6000 and stuff it for you.

Interestingly, it will survive the treatment this time but will be stressed to hell. You can mistreat electical items and you think you get away with it 'cos they still work, but trust me, you have shortened their life span... They will just wait until it is raining and you are 500 km from home before exploding...

Batteries last for years if properly looked after. Things that kill lead acid batteries are..

Extreme discharge (don't do it. if it won't start the firsh 10 churns, something is WRONG ok)

Extreme temperature

Low acid level (distilled water is cheap as chips, use it)

Mechanical failure

Over charging (use a good hydrometer)

Cheers

[FROSTY]

Dude super cheap autos sell a jumper pack for $50
Its about the size of a habdbag and starts cars so itll start a bike no worries,

[Paul in NZ]

Ya wanna be careful of that too...

Some bikes have piss poor protection for the ECU and the voltage spike caused by jump starting or even push starting can be very expensive.

Cheers

[F5 Dave]

Just a point there about adding water (& no I'm not going to get into some silly argument about using only Perrier or H2O-GO (with a hint of blackberry).

No my point is these no-maintenance sealed batteries do vent out some liquid so topping them up is a good idea when they age a bit. For this you will need a screwdriver & just pry up the caps on top. This goes for your car as well.

[Motu]

Yeah,that can be done - but then the battery would last longer and my battery sales would drop...think I'm stupid or something?

[F5 Dave]

Sorry I didn’t want to hurt your bottom line profitability. Perhaps everyone can look around the house & find as many of those 1 & 2 cent coins as they can & send them to Motu to make up for any lost sales I may have cost you.

C/o-
Motu
Dodgystreet
Boganville
:spudwave: