Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Yesterday, after riding my bike home from work (20 minutes, 10 miles), I stalled the bike out trying to get it parked correctly on the back porch. No problem. I pulled the clutch in and hit the starter to start it back up...

.. But the starter kinda slowly chugged like the battery was dead. I let it sit for a second and tried again, but the starter chugged even harder and just stopped making noise. Sounded to me like the battery was dead, so I grabbed my multimeter.... the battery is fine. I had stuff to do so I left it overnight.

This morning, the air was chilly, so I tried starting it up. Came right up, but I forgot to put the choke on so it died in about 2 seconds. Put the choke on, and it chugged a bit... but it just barely started up, so I rode it to work.

Once I got to work, I stalled it out again trying to park it. I tried to start it up, wondering if I'd have the same problem. Chug, chug.... dead.

I can't even begin to imagine where I'd start looking to diagnose this. Suggestions?

Did you hook up the multimeter and get a reading while you were trying to start it or just get a reading for the battery at rest?

storysunfolding wrote:Did you hook up the multimeter and get a reading while you were trying to start it or just get a reading for the battery at rest?

Very good point.. it was just while at rest.

What should I expect to see when there is a load on the battery? How low is too low?

Tell us what it hits. My guess is that it's going to get near 10 or lower and you'll know for sure that it's a bad battery

I hooked up the voltmeter. 12.4 volts.

I turned the key and the light came on. 10.3 volts.

I hit the Start button. 5 volts.



I can't believe I didn't check that yesterday.

Right on