Questions about charging the battery?

[JoshsJourney]

Hello and thanks in advance for help with my question!

I'm brand new to riding and just bought a 2001 Honda Shadow Spirit 750. I like it, but the guy I bought it from explained that I'll want to keep it charged. He gave me a charger that he kept plugged into the wall of his garage. I live in an apartment and have nowhere to plug it in.

My questions are:

- Do all Motorcycles need to be charged like this (do some charge themselves like cars do)?
- The bike has been kept in good condition and has 8,200 miles on it. How often should I figure I'll need to charge it?
- How do I check the batteries fluids to make sure they're good and right?
- Is there anything else I should know that I'm not thinking about?

Thanks!

Josh

[Johnj]

Josh hello and welcome to the forum. Unless something is wrong with the bike, as long as you ride it regularly the battery should remain charged. The PO (previous owner) probably didn't ride the bike but once a month, if that. So he had a trickle charger that he kept connected to the battery to keep it's charge up. Good luck with your bike.

[JoshsJourney]

Awesome! Thank you!

[zee]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but how often do you need to ride to NOT need a charger? Say, during the winter months...?

[agraebner]

That depends on a couple factors. What quality battery? Whats the temperature? Does your bike draw any power when its sitting there? I normally have used AGM batteries and get 4-5 years out of them. My bikes are all old enough there are no electronics so when its of its really off. In the past I have ridden my bikes monthly at the very least all winter long. Keep in mind that the amount of power used to start the bike will take a while to replace from the bikes own charging system. My most recent battery purchase was for a bike I had just bought and wanted it on the road same day. I went to a local MEGA chain and bought what they had to fit it as there were no quality batteries available around me. This cheaper batter took 2x the time to charge. Even disconnected from the bike it slowly looses voltage over a few days where the other batteries hold steady. This battery when connected to my battery tender pro will take 4-8 hrs to put into storage mode. My others only take about 15 mins. The charging system is working perfectly on the bike no excess diode ripple and a strong charging voltage. The easiest thing to do is install a tender and forget about it. If you have several bikes you can just rotate the tender from one bike to the next every month. I have been pretty much paying my bills cleaning fuel systems and other seasonal maintenance so on another important note USE STABILIZER in the fuel if its going to be sitting even a month. Make sure your run it long enough to get it through the system to I recommend actually riding a little bit nit just idling. I have found that running sea foam keeps carbs nice and clean and prevents a lot of the fuel issues.

[jstark47]

My wife's F650GS went 8 weeks without running or being on a trickle charger this winter, and started right up. Bike's about a year and half old.

Mechanics have told me if a gel battery is properly initialized, it will last for years - some have lasted 8 years. But if not done right, they go bad very quickly. My wife's previous bike needed a new battery 16 months after she bought it.

[Thumper]

My Gladius and MP3 sat from November - March and both started up just fine. I was worried about it, but they surprised me

[TechTMW]

Just an added note: Some bikes (older japanese especially) don't even begin to charge the battery unless the bike is run over 3k rpm. I doubt that's the case with a 2001 model, but who knows. If you have a voltmeter, you can look at the voltage on the battery when the bike is idling, and when it's revved, etc. (Cheap digi voltmeter runs about 25 bucks and can be an invaluable tool, both for bikes and cars) Some batteries need at least 30 min of riding to recoup the power lost during startup. So if the guy was running short commutes on the bike, that's another reason he kept it plugged in. Also, cheap lead acid batteries can lose alot of charge if stored in warm weather (Outside, summer months) The cure for this is to RiDE THE DAMN THING to keep it charged If you ever need a new battery, definitely pay for a good gel battery. It will last longer and maintain the charge longer, even in hot weather.

[zee]

Very thorough responses! Thanks!!