Nice sunny weather and bike wont start :(

Hi all,

Was a nice sunny Saturday morning and spent the morning giving my bike a well earned clean. Afterwards I got my leathers on, dark visor in, took the baffle out of the exhaust and went to start it up.

Bugger hehe

It whirred for the fuel pump but when I tried to start it, it just did that fast rattle sound for the starter motor and didn't fire up.
I tried a couple more times and checked the side stand / kill switch / but things seemed ok.

I wheeled it into the garage to have a look at it and it seems the battery was more or less flat. The lights were dim and when I put full beam on the dash lights went as the bike died

Had only used it a day or 2 before ok. Use it as a commuter all weathers and didnt leave the heated grips or lights on as I washed it. Plugged my optimate in and left it around 5 hours as it only lit 3 out of 4 lights on it. (looking out of the window at the nice sunny riding conditions hehe

Tried starting it again that night but had no luck. Lights came on but were dim then it died again as I pushed the start button.
Left it overnight charging and this morning I went into the garage and saw it was apparently fully charged. Turned it on, tried it, and did the same as first time. Just sounded the started motor then the lights went and it died.

So I'm sat here looking out of the window of yet another sunny day Im missing out on lol.

Tried jumping it with leads from my Dads car but even with them attached the dash lights / starter motor wont kick in.


Any ideas? Ive not been able to get a multi meter to test the actual battery.
The bikes around one and half years old, K4, 9000miles on clock, rarely not used for longer than 3 days.

Ta, Darius (not that one lol)

Nice weather...?

someone will be along shortly to help u fella, i really have no idea

Thats odd....as it should still have plenty of charge to start up the bike with 3 of the 4 lights lit on the charger.

How old is the battery mate? Does it look inflated? It may have its days numbered and needs changing. Mine's stockk '99 and it playing up on me. So I'm in approx the same position. I've ordered a new one last month so should be here by now. Lzy me hasn't checked with the dealer yet. Mine lasts a few weeks though if I use the bike regularly but if left alone for a month (bloody bad weather) will fall dead.

If you've got a car AMPHERE meter you could install that inline with the battery (NOT ACROSS), that's in series and not in parallel using technical terms and see if here is any current drain when the bike is unoperative. This is done to see if you have a current leak. You shouldn't. It's more an old battery case if you ask me.

when you tired jumping it where did you contect the leads too? because if you conected it to either side of the battery then you have taken that out of the equation, if the batt was dead the bike would start on the jump leads but once you unplug the leads it would die again, so I don't think its the batt. main fuse? no fuel? (obvious but it could be!!!)

Good news got it working

I put it on charge overnight again...and tried firing it up sunday night and it worked.

I put the jump leads on the terminals so still unsure why it didnt fire up like that and to be honest not sure why the battery ran down. Been using it for 30mile round trips to work with the heated grips on so maybe it had been slowly running down over a period of time.

The battery itself is the original one and its less than 2 years old.



Anyway good thing is that its working
Thanks for all your input and help...

Glad you got it sorted!

new bikes without a light swith (on/off) are bound to eat batteries more. < this is not fact just my opinion.

Originally Posted by kwak zzr

new bikes without a light swith (on/off) are bound to eat batteries more. < this is not fact just my opinion.

only if you leave the lights on without the engine running, other wise i would see no reason why said bikes should wear a battery more.