Battery or bike problem? Pointy.

Hi everyone

2 week ago my bike wouldn't start and it seemed as if the battery had gone, there was power in the battery but not enough to turn over the engine. So I charged it up and it worked fine for about 2 days then went dead again when I was leaving work. So I called out the RAC and they did a check on my battery said it needed replacing. They also did a check on the charging system and said it was fine, so we jump started the bike and rode it home. The battery that I was using was a 5 month old Yuasa YT12A-BS. I contacted the company last week and they replaced it straight away. But I am now having the same problem again, the bike is seems not to have enough power to turn the bike over. All of this has started since the cold weather.

Do you think it would be a battery problem or a bike problem?

Thanks everyone

Bike, unless you're leaving lights on or an accessory. You could have a really inefficient alarm...
Details of the bike?

Bike is an sv? (Not really a daft question on this forum)
Year?
Electrical Accessories?
Frequency of riding?
What did the RAC man actually do to tell you the charging circuit was ok?
Is the bike on a trickle charger?
Where are you located?

It’s an SV650s 2004 and I ride it every week day to work and back 20 mins each way, It doesn’t have an alarm. I have a power port and oxford heated grips fitted. I have disconnected the power port when I first had the problem so it’s defiantly not that. The heated grips are fitted via a relay so when the ignition is off there is no power to them. And im defiantly not leaving the lights on lol

I have had the bike for almost 2 years and never had an issue. Apart from the battery 5 months ago, which when it was replaced it worked fine up until now. When the bike is running it seems to run fine.

I use the bike almost every day so I don’t have it linked up to a charger.

The RAC guy linked it up to one of his devices and let the bike run on idle for 10 mins revving it every so often. He said the voltage was fine and everything seems to be okay.

[jambo]

Realistically there are 3 possibilities here:
1) The battery is duff and self-discharging.
2) Something is draining the battery
3) The bike is not charging the battery sufficiently while running to replace the charge taken to start it.

You've replaced the battery recently, and it would be unlucky to have 2 duff batteries in quick succession from a well known brand (but these things can happen)

You could disconnect the battery when the bike's not running to investigate point 2, but that's a fair bit of faff.

To investigate possibilities 2 and 3 you really need a multi-meter so you can get voltage readings at idle, and 5,000rpm+ to check all the components are doing what you'd hope. If you search on here for "charging circuit" you'll find plenty of tests. You'll want a multi-meter that reads to 0.1V DC increments, almost all of them will

Jambo

[timwilky]

remember Yuasa are the batteries responsible for grounding the worlds fleet of Dreamliner aircraft.


but I normally find them quite good. Despite being an RAC member myself, I wouldn't believe a word a patrol man said. Check your charging system yourself.

Thanks for your help so far

I don't think it is the charging system because if i charge up the battery the bike starts fine, and then if I leave it for say a day, then the battery does dead. So I think something must be draining it.

I have disconnected my heated grips now and going to see if that makes any difference. With all my accessories disconnected from the bike, if I still find that something is draining it then what could it be?

I have a friend coming over with a multi meter tomorrow so I will double check the charging system and the battery

Originally Posted by jambo

Realistically there are 3 possibilities here:
1) The battery is duff and self-discharging.
2) Something is draining the battery
3) The bike is not charging the battery sufficiently while running to replace the charge taken to start it.

You've replaced the battery recently, and it would be unlucky to have 2 duff batteries in quick succession from a well known brand (but these things can happen)

You could disconnect the battery when the bike's not running to investigate point 2, but that's a fair bit of faff.

To investigate possibilities 2 and 3 you really need a multi-meter so you can get voltage readings at idle, and 5,000rpm+ to check all the components are doing what you'd hope. If you search on here for "charging circuit" you'll find plenty of tests. You'll want a multi-meter that reads to 0.1V DC increments, almost all of them will

Jambo

[650]

Could of been a batch of duff batteries, did you get it from Yuasa themselves?

As an outside possibility, it may be a lazy starter motor, but check the battery and charging system first.

Regards

[Winder]

What was it then?