starting problems

hi guys, long time no speak , anywho back on topic, decided to try and start the old sv today , with no luck. then decided to try and bump start it down the hill ( i live at the top of a hill you see) but it didnt start ( roads still a bit slippy didnt help) so pushed it back up the hill and decided to screw doing that again and get a battery charger , so put the charger on and it said it was about 11.6 volts , so let it charge for a while and it wouldnt charge above 12.6 , so put the battery in the bike and still no luck , all it is doing is lights going out and abit a clicking sound and might turn the engine once over when trying to start , then dead again, in thinking a short but wasnt having a problem last time i used it , any comments will be most useful, kind regards red

My money would be on dead battery...try a longer charge? got jump leads? what's the voltage after you've attempted to start it a few times?

only brought the battery last year and what the normal charge of a battery

yep dead battery most likely when was the last time you ran it, jump leads and voltmeter are your mates here

13.6v -14.6v
idle-charging on bike

ran it in late november, ive got jump leads on my charger will they work??? will i need a new battery??

try to jump off the charger see if that works, then test with voltmeter while its running to see if its raising the volts, 2 months left alone in the cyrrent sh1tty weather may kill a battery so you may need a new one, look up batteryman on the org for a new one (its his buisness), hopefully a good run will get it sorted for you

remember these arent car batteries which you can leave forever i turn my bike over for 10 mins every 2 weeks

true will try tomorrow , thankyou for the advice

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by davepreston

remember these arent car batteries which you can leave forever i turn my bike over for 10 mins every 2 weeks

TBH you're better off just charging the battery. I don't like running engines unless you're going to take them for a decent ride (20 miles), you're putting acidic combustion wastes into the oil which won't be good for it.
Plus you wasting petrol lol.

One advantage I can see though is you keeping fresh petrol moving through a carbed bike which is good to do unless you are going to drain the carbs over winter.