Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Hey!

I was wondering if y'all had any suggestions as to the following problem. I have an 1983 Honda Nighthawk 650, and I'm sure that on a bike so old something can go wrong, but it is in almost flawless condition and barely has 10k miles and worked fine last year.

So I had not used my bike since last fall, and I decided to jump it using my car as the donor battery. The battery was not completely dead. The headlight was very dimly lit and the startup lights were also lit, but of course not enough juice to produce the tiniest of efforts in turning the engine over. I have now learned that some people don't recommend using a car to jump a bike, but I googled it earlier and its at least not fatal, but not ideal method, right?

I connected the cables in the proper order but made the mistake of trying to use the bike battery's negative so there were a few sparks since it is so close to the positive. I quickly moved the negative cable to the bike's frame and everything was fine. My car was always off. I gave it a few tries, but it would not actually start. The headlight was bright, the starter was loud, the horn was loud, etc. After about 5 minutes of trying, with the choke on, it finally started. I quickly disconnected the cables in the proper order, but I noticed they were very hot...enough that I was weary of having to do it again.

The bike then ran like a champ for probably 10-13 minutes. The last 5 of which were with the choke off. I figured it was ready to start on its own so I killed it and when i tried to restart it, it was back to the way i found it. The dim headlight and startup lights, but not enough to even turn the starter over. My immediate guess is that I needed to let it run for way longer, but because of how hot the cables were I figured I would ask people that know better than I do.

So my questions are: Does it sound like there is something else wrong with it? Or, I was right in thinking it just needed to run for longer? If the latter, should I avoid using my car battery as a donor or is it just fine and the cables getting that hot is normal?

THANKS!

If you ran it for 15 minutes and the lights went back to dim as it was before, you need a new battery. How old and what type of battery is it?

The wet cell motorcycle batteries that you get where you usually have the store add the acid last for about 4 months, or one riding season. The Gell cell batteries that you can get at the motorcycle stores, or Batteries Plus can last for 3 to 5 years. I think modt are in the 14 amp hour range.

If you were running it at idle, it might not have been charging the battery. Some bikes don't put charge back into the battery until they're running above idle speed.

And yes you want to refrain from using your car to jump a bike. Bike batteries are made to handle a 2 amp or less charge rate.

If you have a car battery charger that has a 5 amp or less trickle charge, use that instead.
If you don't have a car battery charger with trickle charge, get one.

I think all bikes today charge at idle. That being said, we are talking about a bike that is almost 30 years old. I know my CB550K did not charge at idle. In fact, the break even point was around 3000 rpms! So your CB650SC may be the same, or not....

How old is the battery anyway?

The battery is about 10 months old. But, ya know, I do remember hearing that my cb650 did not charge at idle...so what does one do? SHould I just get it started and then keep it at 3k rpm for a long time?

Monkey wrote:The battery is about 10 months old. But, ya know, I do remember hearing that my cb650 did not charge at idle...so what does one do? SHould I just get it started and then keep it at 3k rpm for a long time?

I wouldn't let it "idle" at 3000rpms for a long time.

Can't you ride it and keep it above 3000rpms?

And I would definitely invest in a battery tender type of charger.

General rule of thumb would be to ride a pretty sizable distance and at medium RPM ranges if you want the battery to get charged while riding. Some bike manuals say you can jump a bike with a car battery just make sure the car is off/ not running but may not be true for all bikes.

Get a nice charger with a desulfator or something like that and refill the water levels (don't all old bikes use those kinds of batteries?) and charge it and see what happens.

HYPERR wrote:I think all bikes today charge at idle.

I'm not so sure about that. We had a 2003 250cc Honda scooter that definitely did not charge at idle. And after my wife's '07 BMW G650X stranded her, the dealership told her that engine didn't charge at idle either.

I guess I will have to do that. I was hoping to avoid riding it because to be honest, I'll be very rusty. I probably only have 1,100 miles riding, and I've not ridden in 9 months, and a bit of a tricky clutch...I will have to be very careful not to stall.

I wouldn't mind riding the bike over to a bike shop or battery place...would they be able to recharge it or are my options limited to riding it till it charges or new battery? I'd hate to get a new battery, when I don't think it needs one, but it might. Earlier someone said that batteries plus batteries last 3-5 years, thats where I got this one last year, but I don't think it was a gel one. Im completely guessing but, I had to wait for a littl ewhile for them to get it ready and it was pretty cheap--35 bucks or so. If so, is that the consensus, that cheapo batteriesplus only last for one season?