I have a battery that's around 2years old and I have a R6 reg/rec that's also been in the bike for around the same period as the battery... i think.

Anyway, bike wouldn't start because the engine was swinging over too weak. The battery was showing 12.85v out the bike. So I put it on a quick 20-30minute charge and the voltage came up to just over 13v.

Put the charged battery in the bike and it started 1st time... nice and strong. Put the multimeter on the terminals while the bike was running and it showed around 13.60 at idle and at around 3k rpm it showed around 13.98 and bounced between 13.98 and 14v taking the rpm higher than 3k didn't really push out any more.

Then with the engine off and ignition off the battery showed around 12.95v...

Sooo I'm guessing I need a new battery? can anyone 2nd my opinion please before I rush out to buy a battery and discover it's actually something else...

How long do you guys think I can still ride with it like this before actually getting a new battery...?

Battery sounds ok. Just needed a little recharge after standing idle for a time. How long since the bike was last run.

magg wrote:Battery sounds ok. Just needed a little recharge after standing idle for a time. How long since the bike was last run.

been about a week I think since it last had a run but it was just down the road to the supermarket... and maybe a day or two before that which was a longer run...

ok, just went to check and the battery is around 12.85v after it's been standing for a while... and it starts nice and strong and seemd to charge nicely while the engine is running...

This seems a bit odd though because before(at 12.85v) it wouldn't start and the engine turned over really slowly before I charged the battery out the bike... so now I'm thinking maybe the starter motor was perhaps a bit tight because the bike parked outdoors and stood in the rain for a day or two? then the strong battery freed it up? Is that at all a likely scenario?

I thought perhaps it was just a bad or dirty battery terminal connection but before I charged the battery I cleaned the terminals and it made no difference...

I guess I'll just enjoy the fact that it all seems fine now but will be monitoring the battery over the next few days....

12.6 - 12.8v at 20c is fully charged.

Reg/Reg charge rate also seems good.

Maybe a bad connection?

See how it goes, if it dies and you have good terminal voltage, measure the voltage while cranking the bike, if it falls too low then it's a sign the battery is dead/dying internally.

Hope it was just nothing :)

Neosophist wrote:12.6 - 12.8v at 20c is fully charged.

Reg/Reg charge rate also seems good.

Maybe a bad connection?

See how it goes, if it dies and you have good terminal voltage, measure the voltage while cranking the bike, if it falls too low then it's a sign the battery is dead/dying internally.

Hope it was just nothing :)

Thanks, i also hope it was nothing...

It does seem that maybe it was just a bad connection...

Clean all terminals and apply a coat of vaseline over them to keep off corrosion