robertllr
Tuned and Synch'ed
Time and time again I read here about starting issues. I've had them myself, and every single time, it's been the battery.
Example, I replaced the factory battery in my 2013 V7 Racer with the exact same Yuasa battery--the sealed AGM type. Less than 9 months later, the bike would not start. Mind, I put my bike batteries on the battery tender the first of every month during the off season. The Tender said the battery was fully charged. The multimeter showed the voltage was 12.4 v; still, no start. Surely it couldn't be the almost-brand-new battery! So I went around checking fuses, starter, solenoid etc.
Now faced with taking apart the starter switch I balked. It simply COULDN'T be the new battery...but one more try: I used old-fashioned jumper cables and hooked the bike up to one of the the cars. Bingo, instant start.
I then bought one of those electronic battery testers you can get for about $40 on-line. Aha. It showed a battery with almost no charge and a "state of health" of nearly nothing as well. (I don't know how the meter works, but somehow it calculates the available CCA as a percentage of the nominal CCA--which you enter manually--and gives you this "SOH" number.)
So my battery charger thinks the battery is fully-charged, and the multimer says it's putting out 12 volts. True, but with about only 1% of my original 200 CCA I am going nowhere.
So my WARNING: If your bike does not start, the FIRST thing you do is you use one of these meters to verify your battery is putting out the CCA listed on the battery-or at least a good percentage of it. Do NOT rely on your battery tender or your multimeter to tell you if your battery is good.
And FWIW, this is the second time this year I bought a new vehicle battery, only to have it test REPLACE in less than a year. Am I just unlucky, or do modern LA batteries have poor quality control?
Example, I replaced the factory battery in my 2013 V7 Racer with the exact same Yuasa battery--the sealed AGM type. Less than 9 months later, the bike would not start. Mind, I put my bike batteries on the battery tender the first of every month during the off season. The Tender said the battery was fully charged. The multimeter showed the voltage was 12.4 v; still, no start. Surely it couldn't be the almost-brand-new battery! So I went around checking fuses, starter, solenoid etc.
Now faced with taking apart the starter switch I balked. It simply COULDN'T be the new battery...but one more try: I used old-fashioned jumper cables and hooked the bike up to one of the the cars. Bingo, instant start.
I then bought one of those electronic battery testers you can get for about $40 on-line. Aha. It showed a battery with almost no charge and a "state of health" of nearly nothing as well. (I don't know how the meter works, but somehow it calculates the available CCA as a percentage of the nominal CCA--which you enter manually--and gives you this "SOH" number.)
So my battery charger thinks the battery is fully-charged, and the multimer says it's putting out 12 volts. True, but with about only 1% of my original 200 CCA I am going nowhere.
So my WARNING: If your bike does not start, the FIRST thing you do is you use one of these meters to verify your battery is putting out the CCA listed on the battery-or at least a good percentage of it. Do NOT rely on your battery tender or your multimeter to tell you if your battery is good.
And FWIW, this is the second time this year I bought a new vehicle battery, only to have it test REPLACE in less than a year. Am I just unlucky, or do modern LA batteries have poor quality control?