Level of battery charge

[GoldOxide_imp]

Here in SoCal, there is no off season. But there is earthquakes, fires, freeways, traffic, lots of RVs, tourists, potholes, trucks, and cell phone mamas. But, we have legal lane-splitting. LSS, I ride my two beasts enough I don't need a tender.

" ... They called it paradise, I don't know why.
You call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye. "

[Chuckk_imp]

I was thinking... back in the day, when I was restoring old goldwings, I would let completed bikes sit without trickle charging them.. I would then exercise them every week or two.. as time passed between exercises, I found batteries would fail me.. it was just time to replace them.. but by letting them set without trickle, I felt I was giving the batteries a test.. if they would have been on trickle, I might not have been given that "early warning" of battery failure.. now I have just my CB and put the trickle on after every ride, automatically.. my thought is, it might not be a bad idea to leave the trickle off for a week, just to listen to the starter crank for the first time.. it may be a good test to perform every so often..

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[the Ferret]

Chuckk... understand that you are talking completely different battery technologies between those old Wings and new bikes. The old batteries with plates and liquid acid died slow deaths but gave you warning with multiple slow starts. The new glass mat batteries like in the CB 1100 die almost instantly with maybe 1 or 2 slow start warnings before you need to replace them. Personally I agree with keeping the glass mat batteries on a maintenance charger for the simple fact it doesn't let the battery cycle thru low charge and full charge cycles, but maintains a full charge all the time. Others may have different opinions about that, but that is why maintenance chargers were designed..to maintain a full charge.

[clearviewx]

I was thinking... back in the day, when I was restoring old goldwings, I would let completed bikes sit without trickle charging them.. I would then exercise them every week or two.. as time passed between exercises, I found batteries would fail me.. it was just time to replace them.. but by letting them set without trickle, I felt I was giving the batteries a test.. if they would have been on trickle, I might not have been given that "early warning" of battery failure.. now I have just my CB and put the trickle on after every ride, automatically.. my thought is, it might not be a bad idea to leave the trickle off for a week, just to listen to the starter crank for the first time.. it may be a good test to perform every so often..

.

Love your setup could you talk to that backrest on the standard seat?

[Chuckk_imp]

when faced with a battery emergency, where the battery cranks very slowly, stop !! .. pull the headlight fuse located under the seat.. that is a big drain on the battery.. then bump start the bike, keeping revs up once it starts.. ride the bike home or to a shop without the headlight drain..riding very defensively .. if at night, this plan wouldn't work .. I am speaking from experience.. twice I had charging failures.. once with my CBR 1100 blackbird, once with a Honda VFR.. connectors got corroded, then acted like a toaster.. there was just enough charge going into the battery, to keep up with the demands of the engine.. this is just a little positive thinking.. it might not work for you, but when stuck some where, a bit of positive thinking is just what the doctor ordered.. this pic of my yellow blackbird was interesting.. after I took this pic, my bike wouldn't start.. the battery was almost completely dead.. I bump started it after pulling the headlight fuse and rode 90 miles back to my house.. later, I found the culprit, the bad connector..

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I was thinking... back in the day, when I was restoring old goldwings, I would let completed bikes sit without trickle charging them.. I would then exercise them every week or two.. as time passed between exercises, I found batteries would fail me.. it was just time to replace them.. but by letting them set without trickle, I felt I was giving the batteries a test.. if they would have been on trickle, I might not have been given that "early warning" of battery failure.. now I have just my CB and put the trickle on after every ride, automatically.. my thought is, it might not be a bad idea to leave the trickle off for a week, just to listen to the starter crank for the first time.. it may be a good test to perform every so often..

.

Love your setup could you talk to that backrest on the standard seat?

Love your setup could you talk to that backrest on the standard seat? yes.. I could talk to it, but it never answered.. haha .. was that a spellcheck error? did you have a question? ..

[max]

Chuckk, thanks for the vivid explanation of the near dead battery, this is indeed good thinking and well done on that subject with the headlight fuse removal.

In your case it appears from the picture that the battery gradually lost supply from the generator, discharged itself in the process. and drained itself during the trip all unbeknownst to you until startup time.

Can you clear up a curious mind by revealing if the battery was still servicable after the charging system was repaired?
( it seems from the picture that the connector to the regulator had cooked the three phase connectors in an equal way but not the dc connectors, did the regulator still work ok after that? ), someone i know had smoke pouring out of his alternator connector so it's something to be aware off in some designs and worth checking when servicing by disconnecting while checking for corrosion and good contact, once they start heating up it gets worse over time and good to catch it early in the process.

It's funny how a $0.15 connector can stop a $ 20.000 machine?

[Chuckk_imp]

to be honest, years have gone by and I don't recall the condition of the battery afterwards.. I do know I had to replace the regulator.. mainly because the connector was built into the earlier regulators.. the later regulators had 6 inches of wire, then the connector, allowing one to just replace the connector and still use the regulator (maybe).. it was pretty common problem back then..

..

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[max]

Thanks Chukk

[GoldOxide_imp]

The modern AGM batteries have decent shelf-life, however, there are likely light loads drawing it down - small stuff like the instrument clock - nothing big. But an electrical impairment/damage could draw it down faster.

Pulling the headlight fuse to allow more charge to a weak battery is functionally a good workaround. Even if you didn't, the CB cuts the power to the headlight upon engine start (I believe), so that is useful.

[clearviewx]

when faced with a battery emergency, where the battery cranks very slowly, stop !! .. pull the headlight fuse located under the seat.. that is a big drain on the battery.. then bump start the bike, keeping revs up once it starts.. ride the bike home or to a shop without the headlight drain..riding very defensively .. if at night, this plan wouldn't work .. I am speaking from experience.. twice I had charging failures.. once with my CBR 1100 blackbird, once with a Honda VFR.. connectors got corroded, then acted like a toaster.. there was just enough charge going into the battery, to keep up with the demands of the engine.. this is just a little positive thinking.. it might not work for you, but when stuck some where, a bit of positive thinking is just what the doctor ordered.. this pic of my yellow blackbird was interesting.. after I took this pic, my bike wouldn't start.. the battery was almost completely dead.. I bump started it after pulling the headlight fuse and rode 90 miles back to my house.. later, I found the culprit, the bad connector..

.
.

I was thinking... back in the day, when I was restoring old goldwings, I would let completed bikes sit without trickle charging them.. I would then exercise them every week or two.. as time passed between exercises, I found batteries would fail me.. it was just time to replace them.. but by letting them set without trickle, I felt I was giving the batteries a test.. if they would have been on trickle, I might not have been given that "early warning" of battery failure.. now I have just my CB and put the trickle on after every ride, automatically.. my thought is, it might not be a bad idea to leave the trickle off for a week, just to listen to the starter crank for the first time.. it may be a good test to perform every so often..

.

Love your setup could you talk to that backrest on the standard seat?

Love your setup could you talk to that backrest on the standard seat? yes.. I could talk to it, but it never answered.. haha .. was that a spellcheck error? did you have a question? ..

Love your setup could you talk to that backrest on the standard seat? yes.. I could talk to it, but it never answered.. haha .. was that a spellcheck error? did you have a question? ..