Starting problems...
 

Hi guys

Ive been having this recurring problem with my bike for about a year, but has become more frequent since the weather got colder. Sometimes, especially if it hasnt been used for a couple of days, it wont fire up. It turns over but it wont fire, and then the battery goes dead flat after 3 or 4 failed attempts to start, so it wont turn over at all. I then have to take the seat off and jump start it from the car and go for a ride to try to charge the battery back up. I have heated handgrips but dont use them very often, and I have never left them on with the engine off. If i use them, I turn them off about 10 minutes away from home to give the battery a chance to charge without the grips on. I also have an alarm with a red flashing LED, but it was marketed as having extremely low battery drain (its an Abletronics Absolute Protech alarm).

Have I just got a knanckered battery or is there a problem with my battery not properly charging when Im riding around? Or is this normal and do I just need to run it every day or connect a trickle feeder when its parked up (not easy because my bike lives outside the front of my house!)?

Sorry about the long post! Cheers
A.

daft question , but you arent putting the key in all the way to the left are you so the parking light is left on are you? I know a few people have drained the battery that way.

could be the battery, they don't last forever
couldn't get mine started this morning in the cold, but there was plenty of power in the battery as I was able to crank it for the best part of a minute (not continuously of course :D )

Have you tried changing the plugs? If they're knackered then starting will be harder.

Sounds like a dud battery. Make sure your lights are off if it wont start and you need to go for a full minute of cranking.

good chance its a dud battery, get u or a mechanic to run a multi metre on it when not running, shoudl be bout 12v at the terminals, the when its running check again, shoudl be around 13-14v!

It is also worth checking to see if u have the right battery, i had a yr of electricl problems due to a incorretly supplied battery!!!

it was very simmillar but 30 amps short on power!!! Now it should be ytb12 - abs or sommat, cant remeber of the top of my head.

Now i have the right battery things are much better. Oh and decent plugs work a treat!

All the best
Alex

I would blame the battery too, but there's another possibility... I've found that my bike floods very easily, I used to use a bit of right hand to get it to start and that seemed to work fine in summer, but in winter with the job being harder that technique just didn't work... Couple of flat battery mornings proved that. Now I start it with no choke and just a tiny bit of throttle and get the chokein once it's going...

thanks for the tips guys.....the parking light has never been left on, it had new spark plugs at a service about 2 weeks ago, and the lights are off when im trying to start it. It wont crank for a minute - it goes flat after cranking it for about 10 seconds.

Still havent got round to jumping it yet- might leave til after xmas, lat least it means it wont get nicked by joyriders as it wont start! ;)

Thanks for the tip about the choke - i normally whack the choke about 3/4 way on AND give it some throttle which normally works - maybe i should try with less choke and throttle next time....

Cheers all
A.

Might work, might not : ) I think I'm still a little rich at idle anyway so it might just be my half-assed jetting working against me again :)

I have found that the battery does tend to go flat quite easily. Don't forget that larger capacity V-twins take a fair amount of turning over (ever tried bump starting one on your own?) and it's not that big a battery.

As for the starting thing, the guy that I brought my bike from said that it tended to have a problem flooding on one of the cylinders if left for any length of time on the sidestand and that keeping it on a paddock stand cures the problem.

To start I find that full choke and no throttle and it fires up first time, then let the revs build up a bit on the choke before you try revving it.