battery issues

Busasweety

Registered
With two bikes and two batteries......my question is why then does my bike start up and Georgias bike battery drained down, and wouldn't start??
we start them up once or twice a month during the winter, and actually rode them christmas day,(started fine) Jan 6th had to jump start and rode(before her surgery) then today had to jump start in order to ride...
Each of the above rides are only for 25-30 miles each, but that shouldn't matter..
Bikes have exactly 10k, stay in heated shed.....never before did I need a battery tender on other bikes...so whats up any suggestions??

PS ......Georgia got her cast off middle of last week and is stretching the thumb and moving the wrist....she wanted to ride today and she did great !!!
 
WTG Georgia, glad you are back in the saddle. The batteries may be getting weak and showing this by the cold temps. Ours did the same, until I got a battery tender. The will last much longer if you keep them charged. I am finding this out the hard way. Also, just starting the bike and letting them run will actually drain the battery, they dont charge at idle or just off idle. My battery actually died last year at the meet/greet in OKC. The bike idled for about 20 minutes waiting to get into the track. When I shut it off, Hal had to recharge the battery for me. It has been fine since.
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Did you put anything on the bike that draws any power? I am a firm believer in the battery-tender, if you haven't needed one in the past then you are lucky.
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WTG Georgia, glad you are back in the saddle. The batteries may be getting weak and showing this by the cold temps. Ours did the same, until I got a battery tender. The will last much longer if you keep them charged. I am finding this out the hard way. Also, just starting the bike and letting them run will actually drain the battery, they dont charge at idle or just off idle. My battery actually died last year at the meet/greet in OKC. The bike idled for about 20 minutes waiting to get into the track. When I shut it off, Hal had to recharge the battery for me. It has been fine since.
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I heard you could jump it with a cell phone battery
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I do not use a battery tender. (not saying that you dont need it) I start my 2 bikes up at least once a week just to hear them purr... no issues! My only experience with batteries in a bike is that as soon as it starts to give you trouble,,,get ride of it!
It is not worth the risk of being out 100+ miles away from home and finding out that the last turnover for your engine was back home.....
 
Yea mine tends to drain within a week or so if I dont start it and give it some revs to charge.. I finally just charged the battery up and pulled it outta the bike and put it in my room

Guess the Battery Tender WASN'T a scam after all
 
two words BATTERY TENDER also i have read that its hard on engines just to start them and let them purrr,you are not letting the engine run at operating temp for a prolonged time to burn off any moister in the oil and engine itself
 
I run them for 10 minutes.. When I said purr, I was referring to the beautiful sound...
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And I certainly was NOT saying that this beats having a B/T
 
I have push started my Busas a few times in the boonies when the battery crapped out. Screw that. If you ever resort to that, just make sure you do it in second gear.

As stated, idling doesn't charge the battery, riding does. For the cold months, just invest in a battery tender. It's $35 well spent.
 
Test the suspect battery with a hydrometer.... Sounds like one of the cells might be dead or its low on fluid caused by the heat of the engine. Fill with distilled water! The condition will only get worse with time if its a dead cell.
 
I use a Schumacher battery charger maintainer with float-mode monitoring, got it from Wal Mart, less than 20.00. I leave it on all the time. I have a friend that has an 01, still has the original battery.
 
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As stated, idling doesn't charge the battery, riding does. For the cold months, just invest in a battery tender. It's $35 well spent.
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Wrong... If your battery is in good working condition, at idle, place a DC Volt meter over the battery terminals. It should be reading 14+ volts! This is proof that at idle, it most certainly is recharging a 12 VDC battery.
I'm not saying that running it for 10 minutes will keep your battery up to snuff, I'm stating that I do not use a B/T.
When a battery fails, I dont care what you use to try to keep it charged...get rid of it. If you are getting high 13-14 VDC using the voltmeter read directly off your battery while running, you AC alternator, dc rectifyer and battery is working properly....
 
Battery tender. Cranking takes a lot out of a battery. If the idle is properly adjusted it should charge at idle, but I like taking mine out and getting the RPMs up for a good charge. I ride year round, so I don't have these issues. Also your wifes bike might have something draining the battery. There's a procedure in the manual for checking drains, stator output, etc.
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It too am a believer in a battery tender. Get a Battery tender Jr. with an extra pigtail. Install a pigtail on both bikes, and when your ready to charge it up just plug it in. I ran my wires to the tail section, right hand side where the hole is for the grab handle. No need to lift the seat to plug in.
 
Get a battery tender you can hook up to both machines...well worth it. Also just starting your bike up does nothing to charge the battery. You have to run it over 3,000 rpm to start a charge from my understanding.
 
While the engine is at r/min is low and the generated voltage of the generator is lower than the adjusted voltage of the regulator, the regulator does not function. However, the generated current charges the battery directly at this time.

This comes directly out of the manual I downloaded. There's even better information, but I'm not going to dig it out. If the bike is mechanically and electrically sound the battery will be charged at idle, however it will be even better charged above idle. Like I said you need to take it for a short spin and get the revs up, and a month is to long. A battery that's disconnected from the bike will slowly discharge. A battery connected will discharge even faster, and if you have a slight drain even faster.
 
thanks guys for the thoughts...as stated we have ridin them for 25-30 mile burst basically each month during the winter....will look into the water levels and check the battery out...may get an inexpensive b/t and see if that helps....need to figure it out before the season starts !!!
 
thanks guys for the thoughts...as stated we have ridin them for 25-30 mile burst basically each month during the winter....will look into the water levels and check the battery out...may get an inexpensive b/t and see if that helps....need to figure it out before the season starts !!!
I would go for the battery tender, it seems to have a good rep here. Whatever you get make sure that it is designed for the battery. Highly recommend trickle charging to prevent cooking the battery. I don't use one, so I really can't help. Most install the pigtails for ease of charging.
 
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