Battery problems

I've been using my SV650 to commute to work daily but it was garaged for about 5 weeks as I broke my leg. I went to ride it a nine days ago and it wouldn't start. I jumped it from the car and rode it for 20 mins making sure I kept the revs quite high to charge the battery.

I went to start it this morning and the battery hardly had any life in it and couldn't start the bike.

Can anyone advise me if the battery just requires a good charge (should I get a tricke charger?), or if I've knackered it and should buy a new one?

always worth trying to charge it first before you bin it. get a multimeter on it and see if you have sufficient voltage accross it to charge.

[Sid Squid]

Charge the battery first, only after doing that can a realistic diagnosis of a possible fault be made.

Have you got/got access to a multimeter? This will help enormously in diagnosing a fault.

Thanks for the quick responses. I've got a multimeter - should I charge the battery and then check there's 12volts in the battery?

Originally Posted by sonicated

Thanks for the quick responses. I've got a multimeter - should I charge the battery and then check there's 12volts in the battery?

After charging leave it for a while to 'settle'

You should have at least 12.7v for a decent condition battery, that doesn't mean the batteries necessarily good though.

if your battery tests ok, there is a section in the Haynes manual if you have one, for diagnosing faults with the charging system which I found to be helpful.

[embee]

This pdf is a very useful reference document for checking out bike charging systems, most are similar in principle (just a few exceptions).