Winter Battery Maintenance

[GoldOxide_imp]

Thanks Tev. Useful video, although I mostly get to ride all year round so it isn't an issue for me.

Yes, same for me as our climate is quite temperate.

I do tend to use battery tenders though. The 90's Triumphs have a sprag clutch weakness and a sure-fire way to wreck it is to crank the bike over on a weak battery. Once it goes it goes, a split crankcase job to repair with an updated sprag clutch. The repair is more than the bike is worth.

My last Triumph Tiger just gone used to eat batteries, two replacements in five years and it was a must to put that on a tender. Triumph dealer tells me there was nothing abnormal with the bike, I have my doubts.

The only bike I can leave for weeks and weeks without fear of any issues is the CB1100EX, which doesn't have a tender and has never needed one.

I reckon the Triumph has a parasitic load? e.g. tracker or ignition disable/security feature?

It would be easy to measure the current draw at the battery while the Triumph ignition is turned off (e.g. requires lifting the +ve lead). If the draw is in the high tens or hundreds of milliampere range, then yeah - something is suckin' on the battery juice.