How long should a battery last?

[sootie]

Noob question here, whats a good battery brand to go for? Not sure how old the current one is as no date stamp.

I'm assuming my battery in the Hornet is stuffed, charged it tonight (4amps for 2hrs) sitting at 14 odd volts, wired it up and wouldnt turn over, I watched the 14v go down to about 2! Then the battery sat at 12.5v :S

Assuming its the battery as I cant get the engine started to see if the charging system is going.

I have never found a brand of lead acid battery I like better than Yuasa, but they work out quite a bit more expensive than the cheap Chinese batteries around. They seem to hold charge much longer, and simply crank better. Like all batteries however their charge must be maintained properly.

I have had a few bad experiences around the adequacy of the charging systems fitted to some Honda & Suzuki models particularly where auxilliary power drains like heated hand grips are after fitted, or all riding for a few weeks is in stop start traffic.

I can not really comment about your particular case, but a 4 amp charge rate is really too high for a battery of around 8 AH capacity. Try using a car charger with a 6 or 21 Watt light bulb in series.

[Stevee2]

Thanks for the advice

It's happened after not riding it for a few months due to me being ill. Maybe it's worth investing in a proper small battery charger? I don't have any aux stuff except for a bigger horn and aftermarket led indicators. Can't think of anything else that would draw a current?

[sootie]

Thanks for the advice

It's happened after not riding it for a few months due to me being ill. Maybe it's worth investing in a proper small battery charger? I don't have any aux stuff except for a bigger horn and aftermarket led indicators. Can't think of anything else that would draw a current?

In that case, I will have a guess & suggest that the battery had a reasonably high self discharge rate & then just sulphated up from weeks of non use while discharged. The cheap batteries tend to be worse at fast self discharge, but I can not quote brands here. (I have one in a scooter which is like this.)

If a battery is just beginning to sulphate up, a very long slow charge at around 5% of the battery capacity per hour up to about 14.1V is the most likely way to get a good recovery. A car battery charger with a tail light bulb (typically 6 Watt) in series works well here, and a trained eye can pick the charge progress from the lamp brightness which is helpful. After standing discharged for a few months even the head honcho up top might find battery recovery difficult! Cheers

[Stevee2]

Just an update, ended up getting a new battery and a Oxford 601 Oximiser, works a treat and charging system appears (volts go up to about 13.5 when engine at 5k rpm from memory) to be fine so must have been the battery.

[bsasuper]

The quality of lead/acid batteries depends on exactly that, the quality/purity of the lead, acid.Cheap lead acid batteries = short life.However L-ion batteries are more forgiveing when it comes to quality of materials used, but cheap L-ion batteries are more of a hazard than cheap lead/acid batteries.

[SS90]

Please see my earlier quote: A 1994 ZZR1100 still starts on its original battery even after standing 4 weeks. It is of course a Yuasa battery & the Kwaka uses good alternator engineering.

I suspect my Fly 150 scooter would not start after standing 4 weeks. The battery in that is a bit over 1 year old. Crappy Chinese battery, and crappy charging system on the Italian scooter.

I think Yuasa make the best lead acid automotive batteries, but they are expensive, and you do need to look after them if you want them to last. cheers

Piaggio flys, despite what some people want to think are made in Vietnam (as are the batteries)
Most of Piaggios stuff was made in India for some years, but the Indian labour got too expensive, so they moved on to the next third world cheap labour. The batteries too are made in "nam"

[sootie]

Piaggio flys, despite what some people want to think are made in Vietnam (as are the batteries)
Most of Piaggios stuff was made in India for some years, but the Indian labour got too expensive, so they moved on to the next third world cheap labour. The batteries too are made in "nam"

Thanks for that. I knew it was a cheap labour country, but did not know it was Vietnam.
The overall scooter design is reasonable (with a few bad points like service access and poor charging design), but the assembly quality control was awful! (Missing washers, loose nuts etc.)

The worst bit was the fuel gauge though, which read whatever it liked on the day! When I took it all to pieces, it had threads of assembly glue hanging off the displacer which had been there since manufacture! These were causing movement jamming. Gauge works fine now.

Battery was stuffed when I bought it as an insurance writeoff anyway.
I put a cheap Chinese battery in it, but should have bought a better one.

[Corse1]

My 2003 model bike still with original battery.
Battery Doc tender always used when hot being ridden
All other bikes I have had in the last 5 years never needed batteries and all of them have been on tenders.

The guy who sold me the 999s handed me the new battery out of his Streetfighter as he reckoned the battery was stuffed when I went to pick it up. Streetfighter battery sits on a tender on the shelf as a spare now. Nothing wrong with the battery, he had just let it go flat overnight.

Obviously I am a great fan of battery tenders. Unfortunately I cant talk my mates into shelling out the small amount to purchase their own and I do my fair share of pushing their bikes on the day of the ride. Then they buy new batteries and let them go flat until too many discharges mean they have to buy new batteries again.