Alarms and batteries

Right- despite a battery only 8 months old and a reg/rec only 3 months old (electrex, not Suzuki, with revised heat sink), I'm still finding the battery dying after a few months riding.

Aside from checking the wiring tomorrow for worn insulation, I'm wondering if the alarm might be causing issues.

If the backup (rechargable) battery is dying in the alarm, would this provide a serious additional drain on the bike's battery? The alarm is a good few years old (fitted for previous owner- can't remember when - probably 3-4 years old), so this could be a possibility.

I went through about 6-8 months of riding, before the last reg/rec packed up without battery woes.

Alarms can be a nightmare for that, so it wouldn't surprise me. The guy who lives with us has a Caponord and if he leaves it off the optimate for more then 4 days the battery ends up flat cus of the alarm.

Cheers Grinch- I've had that too.

Thing is, I commute 5 days a week- 20-30 minutes each way, with occasional longer rides that should recover the battery (long rides home or weekend jaunts)-well over the 30 mins that most people say is enough to recharge after starting. Plus the long rides I did on Saturday doing Bikesafe.

The bike's rarely standing for more than a day without being ridden.

I may get the alarm serviced too- I had to butcher it a bit to get the battery out when linking a new plipper to it (only got 1 with the bike, wot died, like)- so it only has 1 bolt holding the alarm (had to saw the other one out- it's not easy to remove otherwise- being a security product and all!).

I've also taken to switching the lights off while starting- this has made a big difference to getting it started.

Given the ease of firing the bike up with a full battery, I don't think the starter is a problem. Also, I've not been covering her over the last few weeks- so any rain/moisture could be a factor too- but I'd assume only if any of the wiring needs re-insulating (the battery itself is sealed and doesn't appear to get wet.

Well it could be that the battery is on it last legs and starting to have problems holding a charge. The other thing it could be is that the reg/rec is not charging the battery right. So you will need to get hold of a haynes manual and look up the guide on how to check them in there.
The basics of it is you run the bike, check the voltage, then increase the throttle and check again, doing the same again but this time with the lights on.
Mine was over charging so it was easy to see as it was trying to push 17 volts in to the battery.

Cheers.

Yeah- I'll chuck a meter on it as soon as I can get my hands on one.

The reg rec is only 3 months old, though- so I doubt it's had that much time to go wrong in. The batter was new in Dec- had a dodgy reg/rec on it, but it was under charging, rather than over. So it's taken about 3 months for the battery to get this low- was starting to show signs late last week.

Time to get a checklist together methinks!

The other thing it could be is a leak in the charging circuit, though these are a bugger to trace, normally you work on removing any accessories like heated grips first and seeing if the problem is still there. I normally pop the fuses out of the extra stuff. What alarm is it you have, if its a Acumen alarm then I wouldn't be surprised if its on it last legs, I cut mine out.

I don't have any other extras in the leccy circuit.

It's A Datatool Veto (or Veto Plus). Apparently these things are roughly 8 years old. Could be time for a service...

[yorkie_chris]

It's likely your reg rec issues before have deep discharged the battery, optimates reckon to recover that but it wouldn't suprise me if there was some long term effect.

Could be something simply like the internal battery on the alarm is dead and this will leave the alarm permanently draining your bike battery, something like 2.5mA. Whether the not the Veto has an internal battery I am not sure.

Yeah- the veto's got an internal rechargable PP9.

I've just got a new battery and charged it up indoors- going into the alarm later (after the F1).

Looking at the bike's history, the alarm was fitted in 1999. It's a good chance that the battery has not been changed since.

Hopefully this will solve my battery woes...!!