04-05-2015, 12:12 PM
On April 5th, 2013 I swung my leg over my CB1100 and put the first mile on the odometer.
Today I was running errands around town and stopped at the post office to mail a letter. When I came out I hit the starter button, the engine slowly made about a half turn and stopped. Further attempts got similar results. I could tell voltage was low because when I let go of the button, the tach and speedo would go through their full sweep (as if I had just turned the key on). This had all the earmarks of a dead battery.
To make a long story short, lots of huffing and puffing ensued while I attempted to push start the bike with the side stand down (Doh!). I eventually figured out my goof and the bike started up nicely in second gear with the side stand up.
When I got home, I did some diagnostics and now I'm thoroughly stumped. I let the bike sit for about 1/2 hour (longer than I'd been in the post office). When I went back out I attached a multimeter to the battery and it showed 12.6V, so I turned on the key. The headlight was bright, so I hit the starter and she fired right up. I checked the charging system and it was showing a healthy 14.0 - 14.1 volts at 5,000 rpm. Battery connections were tight. Basically, everything looked good. I'm stumped.
Because of the extreme heat here, lead acid batteries typically last around 3 years on my bikes. I had higher hopes for the stock sealed battery, but maybe not. I suppose the next step will be a load test on the battery (when I get my load tester back from my neighbor). Any other ideas?
Today I was running errands around town and stopped at the post office to mail a letter. When I came out I hit the starter button, the engine slowly made about a half turn and stopped. Further attempts got similar results. I could tell voltage was low because when I let go of the button, the tach and speedo would go through their full sweep (as if I had just turned the key on). This had all the earmarks of a dead battery.
To make a long story short, lots of huffing and puffing ensued while I attempted to push start the bike with the side stand down (Doh!). I eventually figured out my goof and the bike started up nicely in second gear with the side stand up.
When I got home, I did some diagnostics and now I'm thoroughly stumped. I let the bike sit for about 1/2 hour (longer than I'd been in the post office). When I went back out I attached a multimeter to the battery and it showed 12.6V, so I turned on the key. The headlight was bright, so I hit the starter and she fired right up. I checked the charging system and it was showing a healthy 14.0 - 14.1 volts at 5,000 rpm. Battery connections were tight. Basically, everything looked good. I'm stumped.
Because of the extreme heat here, lead acid batteries typically last around 3 years on my bikes. I had higher hopes for the stock sealed battery, but maybe not. I suppose the next step will be a load test on the battery (when I get my load tester back from my neighbor). Any other ideas?