First flat battery..

[millsd44]

So yesterday it was glorious sunshine here in the south of England and I got all prepped for a ride. It had only been two weeks since my last one so checked a few normal bits and bobs before starting up the bike.

nb - bike is well maintained, I keep a spreadsheet of my service schedule... yeah yeah

Turned the key and it did its normal stuff, 299 and back again. Starter button..... woh wohhh wohhhhh

Just three turns! What! How could I have a flat battery after only a couple of weeks without using it? I've read about expecting to lose 1% charge every day that you don't use it, but surely, two weeks??

Luckily my road is slightly inclined, so I whacked it into 2nd and bumped it. What seemed like the first time it turned over it fired up, lights and everything. No low revs, no dim lights, all electricals working a treat.

I rode about 20 miles and had to fill up the tank, worried it wouldn't start again. But nope, perfect. After that, another 50/60 miles and back home again. She's been sat now for 24 hours.

Makes me think. Could 20 miles charge the battery enough? I guess yes because it was ok after that, but is that the sign I'm in need of a new one as it went flat after 2 weeks sat?

What do we reckon?

Haynes manual has a graph with voltages and battery life. Unfortunately I don't have a multimeter.

Bike is a 2005 FZ6-N with 12k on the clock.

 

[Ultrarandom]

Been told this by the people at Yuasa when they did a training night at my work.
Your alternator/stator will never fully charge a battery. You could travel for hours and it still wouldn't be fully charged. The only way is by using a plug in charger.
Not abnormal for a battery to drain that quickly though especially if it's old. My old Honda would struggle to start if I didn't use it for more than 3 days, even less if it was cold (I used it every day so this wasn't usually a problem) and one of my cages usually only lasts a week before it won't even turn over at all (these were all old batteries yet somehow the one in my other car is 10 years old and lasts 3 months of sitting before it needs charging).

If it keeps starting then that's good but I would expect it to run out of charge quicker than last time unless you put a wall charger onto it.

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

+1 ^^^^

I suspect your battery is on the way out quickly.

New batteries come 80% charged. Before install, its highly recommended to fully charge at 1.25 amps. For our batteries, thats about 10 hours.

I just replaced my battery last week and it was indeed 10 hours before I got the "green light" from the charger.

A full charge on the charger and then a load test will give you a positive answer on the health of your battery..

As a side note, my voltage, on the old battery, would drop to as low as 7 volts when cranking, the dash "go out altogether" but still started.

Cranks over MUCH faster, no dash lights going out either.

 

[millsd44]

Thanks for the replies. Didn't know that the stator wouldn't recharge it, I assumed it would as it's outputting around 13v whilst the bike is under load from what I've read. I guess it's just there to keep it topped up though.

If I'm going down the route of a new battery.. Yuasa - are they the best?

Yuasa Motorcycle Battery - YT12B-BS - FREE UK DELIVERY

Only £45 seems good!!

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Thanks for the replies. Didn't know that the stator wouldn't recharge it, I assumed it would as it's outputting around 13v whilst the bike is under load from what I've read. I guess it's just there to keep it topped up though.

If I'm going down the route of a new battery.. Yuasa - are they the best?

Yuasa Motorcycle Battery - YT12B-BS - FREE UK DELIVERY

Only £45 seems good!!

The stator will keep it charged however, IT has to be a good battery that'll accept and hold a charge. Yours isn't holding a charge for long.

To do a load test, the battery has to be fully charged on an automatic tender of some sort. 45 minutes wether it be the bike or charger is simply not enough time.

As for the Yuasa, Its OEM, its what I replaced with when my old Yuasa wore out after approx 4 years. That's with the BD43 headlight mod (slightly more additional wear and tear on the system). I personally won't run anything other than a Yuasa...




From page 18 ( http://www.yuasabatteries.com/pdfs/TechManual_2014.pdf ) ;

Newly activated AGM batteries require an initial
charge. After adding electrolyte, a new battery is
approximately 75-80% charged. After the “stand” period
(step 6), charge the battery to bring it to a full state-ofcharge.
The battery charger used for initial charging should
be able to charge at 12.8+-volts for an AGM battery. All Yuasa
battery chargers are capable of reaching this minimum
voltage and initializing/activating an AGM battery

 

[ShoopCE]

Thanks for the replies. Didn't know that the stator wouldn't recharge it, I assumed it would as it's outputting around 13v whilst the bike is under load from what I've read. I guess it's just there to keep it topped up though.

If I'm going down the route of a new battery.. Yuasa - are they the best?

Yuasa Motorcycle Battery - YT12B-BS - FREE UK DELIVERY

Only £45 seems good!!

Hi Mills,

I bought that battery back in February when I though my ioriginal battery had died. But while waiting for the delivery I had the bike on the charger and I found the original battery came back to life, or at least close enough.

A neat feture of the YT12B-BS is that it is stored and shipped dry. This means that you have to handle the acid to fill it. But it also means the shelf life is almost indefinite. So, for now the new battery is sitting on a shelf in my garage.

I'm certain that the reason my battery was drained (not flat dead, but too lw to start) was because I had a USB port with an LED indicator coneted to it for about three weeks of cold weather. I usually disconnect the USB but it is inside a tank bag so I didn't remember that it was connected to the battery - unswitched connection using the battery tender leads. Anyway, I suspect that most times that batteries die mysteriously, and faster than normal is because something is still connected and drawing current. My brother was convinced that his car had a short or something because the battery kept dying. Then I noticed that it had a local manually switched light in the trunk (boot) that had been left on. Problem solved. Most battery problems are not so simple, but some are.

Good luck.

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Just to add to the above, my new battery sat in my garage, DRY, for a year before I decided to finally change it out.

That slow, long time, light draw, IS the best way to ruin a battery (vs just leaving the lights on)

 

[millsd44]

Thanks all. I finally got round to taking it out and charging it, to see how dead it is. is this an aftermarket battery put in by the previous owner? Googling doesn't tell me much but it does seem pretty cheap.

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Thanks all. I finally got round to taking it out and charging it, to see how dead it is. is this an aftermarket battery put in by the previous owner? Googling doesn't tell me much but it does seem pretty cheap.

Your image didn't post but I believe Yuasa was the only battery used for OEM.

My last Yuasa battery lasted 3 years-no issues, slowly failing (dash dimming, drop in cranking voltage) another year before I changed it out.

But that's with 365 days riding, all short, in town trips...

Still have it and it still works..(back up battery for now before it gets re-cycled unless someone wants it-USPS won't ship with the acid, it'd have to be picked up)

 

[millsd44]

Doh! Not sure why. In any case, it's a Nitro YT12B4. So I guess not oem. I've given it a charge now so will see how it fair over the next few weeks and order a yuasa if I need to.

 

[FinalImpact]

A little snapshot at another bike:
I have papers from the original owner who bought the bike new in April of 2008, so thats 7 years on the OEM battery. I've never had it on an external charger of any kind and it typically sits untouched for 3 or 4months in the winter where it might loose 0.01 volt over 3+ months. In 08 and 09 it sat stable at 13.00volts once parked, months later at had dropped 12.99v...

Its now down to 12.85v while being used (check once off for 4hrs) and cranks noticeable slower. Dash lights remain on, but i know if it doesn't start right away, its cranking energy/time will not exist.

Even with newer technologies and far less weight, I'll take the old Lead Acid AGM and keep it. Its served me well. FWIW when they say a vehicles charging system will not achieve 100% of the batteries charge state, often times its a very small percent of its total capacity like 94% to 97% of fully charged.

My observation is this: those who routinely use maintenance chargers are replacing their battery every 3 years!

POINT: if after the bike is off for 3 to 4 hours at room temp the battery voltage measures 12.98 to 13.00 volts, don't charge it. Its not a value add and it decreases the overall life of the battery.​

How could caring for it do this, thats a long article and not worth writing but it does degrade when thinking in terms of years vs weeks. Do you trickle charge your cage?

 

[sheltiedave]

If i can add to this thread after just suffering from a flat battery

Went to the bike two days ago after she was sitting for a week , turned the key and nothing , no dash , no whirry noises from the fuel pump , nothing.

So I thought the old battery has just given up there and then , got a new battery and filled it with the acid pack . Now after reading the previous posts this is probably where I went wrong , but after letting the battery sit for a while I put it back in the bike without charging , and she fired right up again.

Just this morning went for a nice morning run on the bike and riding along noticed the orange engine light came on ,so rather brilliantly I stopped at the bottom of a hill , switched the bike off and had a check , thinking I hadn't tightened up the battery terminals enough .

After everything looked ok , tried to fire up the bike again and the starter just gave a few half hearted attempts before the dirrrrrrr noises started , I know in the grand scheme of this the FZ6 isn't the heaviest bike , but trying to push it up a hill for a jump start :shakehead: Got her back but the dash stopped working about 2 miles from home.

Could it be the battery was never fully charged and thats why she cut out?

Or is the charging system got a fault ?

 

[oldfast007]

New battery every three years without fail, with or without a tender, the current one taken out of bike and fully charged before installing this season, convinced that this is just the nature of the beast...sadly

GS3