So, I goofed up my battery, what is my next step

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RhadamYgg · #1 Post by **RhadamYgg** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 3:37 pm

So, I'm obsessed with my bike. After every day's worth of riding, I check the odometer and trip and I usually have a receipt for gas that I do some calculations on to get my mpg and stuff like that.

And of course, with a digital control cluster I have to turn my bike on to gather information.

Of course, when my bike is in the garage, I leave the keys in the bike.

The time before the last time I rode my bike, I checked all my info and promptly left the key in the ignition (normal for me), but this time in the on, position.

Next time I went to ride, the battery was dead.

So, I went to jump the bike with my Accord. It didn't really supply enough power to turn my bike on. So, against online advice, I turned my car on for about a minute and was able to get my bike to start.

I took the bike out for a ride in what turned out to be risky conditions, but I was inside of Costco when a wild storm swamped my bike. Wife and kids rode in van and I brought the jumpers just in case.

Of course, my bike didn't start. Turns out the ride to Costco might have been less than 20 minutes. So, we jumped it with my wife's car. Her Odyssey has a lot stronger batter/electrical system so we didn't turn her car on.

That night I jumped the bike and left it on for 30 minutes. I turned it off and then tried to start it - and while there was power, there wasn't enough to turn the engine over.

So, I have an tester for amps and volts - is there any way that I can check to see if the problem is my battery or did I "dog" up my alternator when I turned on my car?

Since that 30 minutes and non-starting I went to start the bike out of curiosity earlier today. It started right up. So I turned it off. Then I went to start it again - it didn't work. Bleh. I'm not feeling the confidence I need in the bike to take it to work.

Of course, that isn't much of an issue since it look slike rain most of the week.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
RhadamYgg

paul246 · #2 Post by **paul246** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 3:55 pm

First step... lay off the bike's battery, you are at this point asking way too much of it.

Second... buy a low amp charger if you don't already have one. Let the charger take your battery back up to a full charge.

You can't expect the stator on your bike to actually do much in the way of charging a dead battery, it won't happen. It is also hard on the stator to keep placing a heavy demand on it such as that. That is what a charger is supposed to do, then the stator will do a decent job of keeping your battery in a relatively decent state of charge provided there are enough RPM's over a long enough period of time.

RhadamYgg · #3 Post by **RhadamYgg** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:18 pm

Thanks, I was thinking it would be like a car - where I could just jump it, let it run for half an hour and I'd be good to go. Now I just have to find me one of these chargers.

Too bad my RC car charger won't work.

RhadamYgg

BuzZz · #4 Post by **BuzZz** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 7:24 pm

RhadamYgg wrote: ......
Too bad my RC car charger won't work....

If it is a higher end charger, it might. Many of the good RC chargers make very good trickle chargers. If you run electric, you probably have a good charger. If you run nitro, there is no real need for anything that fancy and your charger probably won't work.

Tennif Shoe · #5 Post by **Tennif Shoe** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 5:18 am

BuzZz wrote:
RhadamYgg wrote: ......
Too bad my RC car charger won't work....
If it is a higher end charger, it might. Many of the good RC chargers make very good trickle chargers. If you run electric, you probably have a good charger. If you run nitro, there is no real need for anything that fancy and your charger probably won't work.

Some r/c chargers do charge 12 volts; 1/2 the starter boxes out there are 12 volts, but probly not the best for charging a m/c batt, you may have to change the batt.

RhadamYgg · #6 Post by **RhadamYgg** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:55 pm

BuzZz wrote:
RhadamYgg wrote: ......
Too bad my RC car charger won't work....
If it is a higher end charger, it might. Many of the good RC chargers make very good trickle chargers. If you run electric, you probably have a good charger. If you run nitro, there is no real need for anything that fancy and your charger probably won't work.

Ahhh I do run electric. But I go cheap on my chargers. I do have a Battery Tender on the way though.

RhadamYgg

RhadamYgg · #7 Post by **RhadamYgg** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:57 pm

Tennif Shoe wrote:
BuzZz wrote:
RhadamYgg wrote: ......
Too bad my RC car charger won't work....
If it is a higher end charger, it might. Many of the good RC chargers make very good trickle chargers. If you run electric, you probably have a good charger. If you run nitro, there is no real need for anything that fancy and your charger probably won't work.

Some r/c chargers do charge 12 volts; 1/2 the starter boxes out there are 12 volts, but probly not the best for charging a m/c batt, you may have to change the batt.

Ahhh one can only hope after getting the battery tender I won't have still have to replace the battery.

But 'dems the brakes. I pulled a stupid and I've got to pay the price.

At least it didn't involve scratching my bike or breaking parts of my body.

RhadamYgg

Johnj · #8 Post by **Johnj** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 2:03 am

Do you have a Harbor Freight nearby? They have battery tenders for like $10.00 when they are on sale.

havegunjoe · #9 Post by **havegunjoe** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 9:07 am

Now you know why I never leave my keys in the bike. Also because someday I will walk off with the key in the bike when it is not in the garage because I am distracted. My wife does this and one day I met her at her work and guess what? There was her bike with the key sitting in it. I blew a cork over that one.

RhadamYgg · #10 Post by **RhadamYgg** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 3:13 am

Johnj wrote:Do you have a Harbor Freight nearby? They have battery tenders for like $10.00 when they are on sale.

I bught a battery tender jr on Amazon $22 with no shipping. (not too bad and I have the amazon thingie where I don't pay shipping and it gets here in like 2 or 3 days.

Bad part is my wife went cheap and it is 750 milliamp and it is taking forever to charge my battery.

Good part is that I have it and it is starting charging since around 1AM last night. So, we'll see if I need a new battery or not.

RhadamYgg