All is not well with Northwind's bike... Not charging right, or possibly losing charge to earth. The battery seems healthy enough- it starts very strong after a charge, and it runs fine for as long as I leave it running. What I'm finding is that if I charge it overnight, start it and ride to work with headlights on, then it'll be completely stone cold dead when I come back to it- maybe one wheezy turnover at most, then clicks. Not just a bit flat, but almost completely flat.
If I ride to work without lights, then usually there's enough charge to restart.
Now, sounds like classic reg/rec, doesn't it? But I'm not not sure. 21Quest sent me a spare (which we don't know works, but have no reason to assume it doesn't) With either reg/rec, I get 13.6V or thereabouts across the battery with the engine running and lights on, at idle. But as the revs rise, the volts
drop, and by 5000 rpm or thereabouts it's making mid 12s. Is that normal? I'm no electrician (I've had very few electrical problems so I've never learnt how to fix them
) but it just strikes me instinctively as wrong.
Really not sure what's up here
It's on to charge now, any other sensible things to try?