Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Patient wrote:A low battery on a brand new bike?...with less than 600 miles.

Well, i guess thats an easy solution if thats the problem, but geez...that doesn't sound right. : \

I can't remember - have you had an alarm fitted to it? If so the alarm will be constantly drawing power and you arent doing enough riding to recharge it.

There is always the chance that there is a fault, is why there is a warrenty.

No modifications at all, so it's not an alarm.

I've heard too many possible problems to justify buying test supplies. I'm going to wait til I take it in for service this weekend, I'm sure they can test and check everything and i'll do what i need to from there.

Thanks for all the input everyone, i'll keep you updated.

Sitting in the sun? Vapor lock??? just throwing out ideas.
Can't tell you anything about your battery since I have a maintence-free one that I can leave sitting for months and have my bike start right up...
http://www.powersourcebatteries.com/
http://www.parkeryamaha.com/index.asp?P ... odID=25739
If you want one and they don't make it specifically for your bike, Just get one that matches your Voltage, Amps per hour, and size for your bike.

That maintenance free battery will still lose charge over time. It just means that you won't have to crack it open and add more distilled water because it's a sealed unit.

You should still haul the darn thing out and throw it on a trickle charger if you know you won't be using it.

Sevulturus wrote:That maintenance free battery will still lose charge over time. It just means that you won't have to crack it open and add more distilled water because it's a sealed unit.

You should still haul the darn thing out and throw it on a trickle charger if you know you won't be using it.

Well i don't really leave it for months, but i could if i wanted too.
Yes it will lose charge over time but when i left it for two weeks when it snowed, I saw no drop in performance starting it up. I don't want to take it out because i had to bend metal to get it in... And I dont have a trickle charger

logitech104 wrote:

Sevulturus wrote:That maintenance free battery will still lose charge over time. It just means that you won't have to crack it open and add more distilled water because it's a sealed unit.

You should still haul the darn thing out and throw it on a trickle charger if you know you won't be using it.

Well i don't really leave it for months, but i could if i wanted too.
Yes it will lose charge over time but when i left it for two weeks when it snowed, I saw no drop in performance starting it up. I don't want to take it out because i had to bend metal to get it in... And I dont have a trickle charger

A stored battery will lose between 1 and 10% of it's total charge per month if no load is placed upon it. This means that sitting for two weeks isn't going to affect your bikes ability to start in any way that you could notice. Don't take that as a sign your bike is good to go.

The battery on mine is a typical lead acid sealed unit (maint free like yours) and it should read above 12.5volts while sitting. It was still starting my bike without any problems at just over 10 volts, but I was allowing the battery to die.

Shouldn't riding the bike charge it back up on its own if it's not down a lot in voltage?

Its a cold engine, sometimes you have to add a tiny bit of throttle or choke, to start em up. Could well be theres nothing wrong at all.

Unlikely to be something that would cause damage by riding, if there is something amiss

Nibblet99 wrote:Its a cold engine, sometimes you have to add a tiny bit of throttle or choke, to start em up. Could well be theres nothing wrong at all.

Unlikely to be something that would cause damage by riding, if there is something amiss

No it's definetly not a cold engine. It ONLY happens AFTER i've warmed the bike,...ridden a bit, stopped the bike, parked (In the sun) for at least 10 minutes and THEN when i go to start it again...i have troubles. But it has never not started at all...it always starts up fine after a few tries then doesn't have any problems.

I also have never let the bike sit for more than 2 weeks, and that was before the bike had 100 miles...Now it sits for no more than a week, and thats only if i'm busy.

Nalian wrote:Shouldn't riding the bike charge it back up on its own if it's not down a lot in voltage?

Nope, the alternator is designed to create a maintenance charge for the bike only. Extended highway hours at a decent rpm (the faster it spins the greater the charge created) will create excess charge which could be used to charge the battery, then it gets dumped into nowhere after the battery is full. But running the bike for a couple of minutes or merely idling it for a while just hurts the bike and the drains the battery.