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Battery life new V100?

Tebax

Tebax

Cruisin' Guzzisti
GT Contributor
Joined
Jul 12, 2023
Messages
135
Location
Sweden
Today I took the time to connect the battery charger to my V100.
it has been practically two months since I used the bike.
I didn’t want to buy another charger since I have two already.
One old C-TEK charger, and one relatively new Oxford charger.
But my old C-TEK doesn’t have the new modern standard connectors, only clamps.
Further it triggers the charging at a bit low voltage which has been discussed on different Swedish forums.
Therefore it took me a while to get my ass up and sourcing some C-TEK extendion cords to wire up with the Oxford charger.

Anyhow, in only two months the battery has been drained to just 5,2V (!).
It took charge immediately though when finally powered by the charger and the voltage increased quickly.
But I’m really disappointed to see such battery drain in such short time…!
Sure, the manual states to charge the battery if more than three weeks without using the bike, but that’s off course factory safety margin to reject customers complaints.
But still, that battery drain is a problem.
Surely we expect to have our brand new bikes starting even if not used or charged the last two months?
What is your experience and comments on this issue?
 
Welcome to the wonderful world of electronics laden vehicles. You could have just disconnected the battery.
Anybody I know with a BMW, Audi etc. has the same problem. Anything more than a couple of weeks and you're looking at a no start situation.
I have a trickle charger on our BMW.
 
Yeah, disasppoinning with modern tech.
Crap tech in this respect.
Last winter the battery on my previous bike (Triumph Sprint RS) died as well.
But it was a lithium battery, and I did charge it twice during winter with the C-TEK charger, although not constantly charged as I alternated with a second old bike.
That’s ~ 5 months period before the real bike season starts again.
But I guess the bike stood without charge two or three months.
Lithium batteries don’t come cheap…and that battery wasn’t more than a year old.
Sold the Triumph to a buddy when I got the V100, but supplied him with a brand new lithium battery for the good sake.

Lesson for my buddy and I is to use correct charger, or disconnect the battery.
My buddy reported that he disconnected the battery a short while ago.
 

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Yep, probably a good time of year to bring this up (northern hemisphere anyway). I haven’t used a charger yet, but it’s only been ~week since I last rode the V100. I have noticed that on cold days, the starter labors a slight bit. I suspect over time that’ll get worse. My Norge rarely got a Tender… it seems at least once a month during the winter, we’ll have a day that’s good for riding, here in Cincinnati. @Raven is right tho… not a surprise with all the tech.
 
BDS said:
Yep, probably a good time of year to bring this up (northern hemisphere anyway). I haven’t used a charger yet, but it’s only been ~week since I last rode the V100. I have noticed that on cold days, the starter labors a slight bit. I suspect over time that’ll get worse. My Norge rarely got a Tender… it seems at least once a month during the winter, we’ll have a day that’s good for riding, here in Cincinnati. @Raven is right tho… not a surprise with all the tech.
Click to expand...
I wonder which day next spring I will wake up the V100.
Most winter days here are around zero degrees Celsius (freezing point for you Fahrenheit guys) an it’s dark before going home from work, or soon at least
So even if some weekend days are dry and possibly to take the bike out on the roads, I rarely find free time those moments anyway.
I envy folks that can enjoy riding motorcycles a longer period of the year.
 
Batteries are not normally a warranty item. An AGM battery should not have discharged that much in only two months, they normally self discharge quicker in hot conditions. I would suspect a faulty battery. Check the current drain between the negative lead and the negative battery post (ignition off), it should be a few milliamps. Another thought is sulphation. If a battery voltage rises rapidly on charging (high resistance) then sulphation may be the cause.
 
This will be my last ever post on this topic as I am forever ignored on it:
NEWER AGMs HAVE VERY SHORT LIFE SPANS UNLESS TENDED BY A SMART CHARGER LIKE BELOW. SIMPLE FACTS OF MODERN TIMES AND LEAD ALLOWANCES. LITHIUMS ARE SUPERIOR AND ARE BEING USED BY MANY OEMs.
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Dear Todd, not disagreeing.
Just surprised with THAT short life of the OEM battery and what part the electronics may have.
But my experience is not good with lithium either as shown in my comments above.
 
Why just not leave it hooked up all of the time when not riding to a battery maintainer? I do this to all of my bikes, even the 40 year old ones.
 
Tebax said:
Dear Todd, not disagreeing.
Just surprised with THAT short life of the OEM battery and what part the electronics may have.
But my experience is not good with lithium either as shown in my comments above.
Click to expand...
I’m not, and quality lithiums are very good. I replaced my first a few years ago after 11+ years of use in my Stelvio, and I never once plugged it in to anything. I won’t debate these simple facts, and I’ve had a workshop dedicated to Guzzis for over 10 years now.
 
Well, how long periods was your lithium battery sitting without use is a question.
Maybe I was unlucky with my lithium, but according to motorcycle forums I’m not alone of having lithium battery failing after a relatively short time.
I used Shido battery which is a decent brand.
1701043909533
 
Lithium batteries are not made for every bike. They last more than other kind of batteries only if used with motorcycles that have not any device consuming power like alarms.
My experience is they are very reliable and last long without charging only on my old and classic bikes but I have drain already two of them when I installed them on modern bikes like Ducati Multistrada which has an LED pilot from the immobilizer.

The following text is from UNIBAT a Lithhium battery manufacturer:
"We do not recommend using lithium batteries on motorcycles equipped with anti-theft devices, in fact in case of prolonged stop or abnormal absorption (ie heated grips) or the activation of the anti-theft device the battery is quickly discharged and once reached 10Volts the BMS (only Advanced) disconnects it from the system, in this case the battery should be carged only using a charger / mantainer with BMS Reset function."
 
Tebax said:
Yeah, disasppoinning with modern tech.
Crap tech in this respect.
Last winter the battery on my previous bike (Triumph Sprint RS) died as well.
But it was a lithium battery, and I did charge it twice during winter with the C-TEK charger, although not constantly charged as I alternated with a second old bike.
That’s ~ 5 months period before the real bike season starts again.
But I guess the bike stood without charge two or three months.
Lithium batteries don’t come cheap…and that battery wasn’t more than a year old.
Sold the Triumph to a buddy when I got the V100, but supplied him with a brand new lithium battery for the good sake.

Lesson for my buddy and I is to use correct charger, or disconnect the battery.
My buddy reported that he disconnected the battery a short while ago.
Click to expand...
OT ON

Wow! a triumph Sprint RS, I had one for more than 10 years, I loved that bike!

OT OFF
 
Tebax said:
Today I took the time to connect the battery charger to my V100.
it has been practically two months since I used the bike.
I didn’t want to buy another charger since I have two already.
One old C-TEK charger, and one relatively new Oxford charger.
But my old C-TEK doesn’t have the new modern standard connectors, only clamps.
Further it triggers the charging at a bit low voltage which has been discussed on different Swedish forums.
Therefore it took me a while to get my ass up and sourcing some C-TEK extendion cords to wire up with the Oxford charger.

Anyhow, in only two months the battery has been drained to just 5,2V (!).
It took charge immediately though when finally powered by the charger and the voltage increased quickly.
But I’m really disappointed to see such battery drain in such short time…!
Sure, the manual states to charge the battery if more than three weeks without using the bike, but that’s off course factory safety margin to reject customers complaints.
But still, that battery drain is a problem.
Surely we expect to have our brand new bikes starting even if not used or charged the last two months?
What is your experience and comments on this issue?
Click to expand...
Hey all. Have just joined to share some of the joys of V100 ownership (spoiler alert: it’s been a tough five months and I miss my V85TT every single day). On the battery, my V100 battery won’t hold charge for more than four or five days. It goes completely flat. The dealer that sold me the bike have handed back their Aprilia and Guzzi franchise so they have pretty much washed their hands of the bike (which has lots of other problems…). However, another dealer has said that Guzzi issued a dealer update in October which said that a batch of the TFT screens don’t power down properly when the bike is switched off and therefore drain the battery. They are pretty sure that’s what’s happening to mine. Might be worth seeing if that’s the issue with yours?

Oh, and even when the battery is fully recharged and turns over the starter motor, the bike simply won’t start in the cold, but that’s another story! (Ducati DesertX feeling like a mighty good option right now…)
 
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