Joe's 2026 thread

I figure I'll just have one thread for the season.

I fabricated a new heat shield last night. Then today I went for the first ride of the season.

For some reason, I'm getting a season or less out of a battery. I've tried traditional lead acid and gel. With the same short life span. Any electrical gurus that might know why that is?

 

So, how do you take care of the battery when the bike is in storage? Do you have a Battery Tender or Optimate?

 

If it's going to be more than 3 days between rides, I plug in the battery tender.

One thought I had (which is probably incorrect), is that I switched all of the lighting over to LED, and it may not be drawing enough power to excite the regulator and begin charging...?

However, that doesn't explain why it has full voltage when I take it off the tender, and it'll crank it, slowly, but not enough to kick her off.

I hook jumper cables to the truck, and the bike will kick right off and run like a dream. However, it doesn't matter how long I ride, it doesn't seem to recharge the battery.

The volt meter shows its charging, which is what leads me to believe it is something with the batteries...?

 

Best thing to do is take the battery down to the local whatever battery store and they will do a load test on it. That will confirm/deny the real state of the battery. Or go to HarborFright and buy a load tester.....

 

I'll have to give that a shot this weekend.

 

Rode again today.