Damnit! Need a new battery!

[manicguitarist]

Touring the country this weekend. 200miles from home - got up, got the bike loaded up again all good to go...press the start button.
Click...dead.

DAMNIT!

Thankfully the RVF was quite easy to bump start...and new battery ordered from Wemoto.

[vfrman]

All three of my bikes died this spring.

[manicguitarist]

How long do batteries last? I can recall having to buy batteries for all my bikes as the years went by, but I don't have my service record for my last bike as it went with the bike when I sold it.
I'm thinking 3 to 5 years if kept on trickle charge when home?

[vfrman]

That's about the range I see out of my batteries.

[Neosophist]

Especially on the vfrs with stock tiny regs I tend to change out the batteries every 3 years before they are past there best. As they get old they dont charge as well and this can easily burn out a stock reg/rec.

My 89 nc30 is still on the factory reg/rec (the early type had no cooling fins either) and still working strong.

Just need to make sure battery is in good condition, kept charged and the genny plug doesnt get corroded up.

The plates on the bike batteries are also smaller and suffer more from the vibration of the bike.

Keeping them fully charged and not using the bike to charge up a dead battery (can overheat the genny by exceeding its duty cycle) and making sure all electrical contacts like the genny plug are in good condition will keep the bike in good condition but 3-5 years seems about the most you will get.

My zxr400 did have a 10 year old yuasa sealed lead acid in it that was still goign strong when i sold it though but i think thats an exception not the rule

[manicguitarist]

Cheers. Measuring at the headlights, the system runs at 14.4v when revving above 3k and if the bike is off the voltage is 12.4v (at the battery), but if I switch ignition on (and thus lights) with no engine, the voltage drops to under 10v in around 30seconds. So, I figure charging system is good, but battery is weak.

[Neosophist]

Cheers. Measuring at the headlights, the system runs at 14.4v when revving above 3k and if the bike is off the voltage is 12.4v (at the battery), but if I switch ignition on (and thus lights) with no engine, the voltage drops to under 10v in around 30seconds. So, I figure charging system is good, but battery is weak.

yeah, souds like a cell is out, charign system souds fine