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Bat Flattery (or something like it)

Motorcycle batteries are very fragile due to their relative small size. The rule of thumb is if the battery is 18 AH rated do not charge it at a rate more than 1.8 amps, a little lower is even better to ensure the battery is not damaged. Very common for people to use a car battery charger set at 2 amps and that will drasdicly shorted battery life. One other caution , with a new battery place it on a good , preferably smart battery charger (pulse charge type. I use a CTEK US800) for 24 hours prior to installation. Poor battery performance is usually a result of how it started out in life. Thats my 2 cents worth, the learning curve for me cost about four batterys and a bunch of bump starts along the way!
 
That doesn't follow for AGM type batteries. The instructions for the Odyssey state that the charging current must be at least 2 amps, and for that reason I use the CTEK 3600.
 
Brian, thank you for your comments. You are quite right I was stuck in the past and talking about lead acid batteries and not AGMs. Your comments made me start looking into AGM batteries a bit closer and will dig a little deeper over the next couple of days. Did look at my battery in my Stelvio and it does suggest to charge at 1.8 amps for 5 to 10 hours (see at top of photo). Find this type of conversation very helpful as it is clear to me I need to catch up with the times.
 

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I'm thinking the problem with my Yuasa batteries not lasting long is from improper charging from the dealer.
The last 3 bikes I bought "new" were left over stock that was on the floor for more than 1 year.
I was not surprised my Yamaha RS Warrior battery went so fast, as the battery was the size of a pack of smokes in a 1700cc engine. That was a $160 battery at the time.
 
Certainly the modern trend of fitting smaller and smaller capacity batteries onto larger and larger engines doesn't help.
Mt Norge battery has just failed at 2.5 years, but this bike also sat in a dealer showroom for a year before that, so who knows what happened to the battery in that time.
 
Thats funny, my Griso sat stood stationarily still for nearly a year...

Its ok now as long as I remove both 30A fuses when its parked for a few days.
 
That's the problem with my battery. It started out holding a charge for 1 week, and now its down to holding a charge for 2 days.
I figured I change it sooner, because with my luck, I'll end up parked at the bottom of 2 hills and then the battery will finally die.
 
If it's only holding a charge for two days, and you know it was fully charged to start with, then it has probably reached the end of its useful life.
There can be issues where the battery is not getting a full charge, caused by lots of very short journeys, or even an alternator charging fault. If this is the case, you should charge the battery from an external source and check it before writing it off.
 
I also had a battery issue this week, had noticed some oddness in the fall. Even though it had been on a tender, as soon as the fuel pump came on the dash would go blank. I thought that I may have a battery going south, but I hooked up a radiator fan as load (agm / gels like a deep charge sometimes) and the thing ran for hours. What I noticed is that the battery cables are made for a wider post than the Yuasa battery has (mabye an Italian brand) so only about 20% contact is being made (on the top)...so I modified it to get contact on all three sides and the starter is spinning much better now.

YMMV,

rdl
 
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