How to check battery 'health'? Pointy

[LewSpeight]

May look into one of these things you speak of :P

I was wondering the same thing, I've gone from a street triple that turned over first time everytime to a k1200r and I have to have the start button push for about 2 or 3 seconds before it kicks into life, I even tried charging it and it's the same, I was wondering if it's because of the size of the engine?

[LewSpeight]

Yeh, wouldn't of thought its anything to do with the battery.
My little 125cc starts first time, I barely have to dab the starter switch and it starts right up haha.
My Sv doesn't like starting, I feel like I'm trying to wake up sloth from a long sleep

[rictus01]

the rating of the battery, the starter, physical mass of the engine (viscosity of engine oil/ gets thicker when cold), limitations on the cables (and returns) as well as any wear or impendence dictate the amount of "oomph" you get when you press the starter button, some bikes are more marginal by design than others, some wear to be like that, there are a few things you can do to help.

Make sure you have a good battery, a good spark and you're not trying to burn 50% water.

Cheers Mark.

[NTECUK]

Originally Posted by rictus01

Make sure you have a good battery, a good spark and you're not trying to burn 50% water.

Cheers Mark.

And good conections.
because of the hi current drains a few ohms of resitance soon cause power losses.

[embee]

Carb engines can sometimes give odd behaviour when starting depending on whether fuel has evaporated and they need refilling etc. If parked up hot the fuel will tend to evaporate as the heat soaks through the carbs, especially on something like the SV where the carbs are up above the bulk of the engine. It then might fire straight away on a cold start using fuel in the starter/idle passages but as soon as this is used up it might stall after a couple of seconds if the pump hasn't been able to refill the float bowls enough. My SV tends to do this, it's normal.

Fuel injection can have different starting strategies. Some give injection pulses as soon as it senses the engine turn in order to get immediate starting, however this can tend to result in high hydrocarbon emissions (for certification testing). Other engines wait for the engine to turn enough for it to recognise where it is in the cycle and then start injection at the correct crank angle, this can take (in theory) up to 2 revs before the first injection. It may even wait longer in order to establish some form of air flow measurement to get a better A/F control. It's not unusual to get different starting characteristics from different FI engines, depending on the calibration strategies used.

In emission terms, the first few seconds of cold running can account for a large percentage of the allowable HC emissions.

[NTECUK]

Originally Posted by embee

In emission terms, the first few seconds of cold running can account for a large percentage of the allowable HC emissions.

This is vary true and why VW Misabushi and other manufactures use FSI in cars.
Its going to creap into bikes on day

[LewSpeight]

FSI?

[yorkie_chris]

Direct injection petrol.

Personally I thought stratified charge was to allow for the bulk A/F ratio to be ultra lean without detonation issues.

[NTECUK]

Fuel stratified injection.
They squirt the petrol near the plug . So it burns smooth but has lots of O2 in the cylinder to burn fully.