The first thing I would do is test the battery, by itself, after charging overnight and after sitting (disconnected) for 4-5 hours. That voltage reading should be at least 12.7v, and over 13v for a brand new battery.

Your 5,000rpm voltage test tells me that the battery is not charging properly, as 12.95v is out of spec. What I don't know is whether the problem is down to your battery, the stator, the reg/rec or the wiring. Test the battery and you can rule that out (on in), then move on.

Ciao,

Too small a picture for my old eyes, other than to say you should be using the centre and right probe inputs.

Thanks JZH but I think the battery is ok. The 12.95 reading stays the same whether the bike is at 5000rpm, 1000rpm or turned off. There is nothing at all coming out of the alternator (I need to check that again to make sure I was using the multimeter correctly). I am going to strip the bike on Sunday and check the connection between the V that magg mentioned but if that is ok then how else can I test the alternator while I have the bike stripped?

Sorry for the useless picture of my multimeter, I hope this one is better.

OK, so I dont know how to post a photo either!!

cant see well from your picture but heres a big pic of a generic type mulitmeter like the one your using.

you can see AC volts is a sepeate setting, the rance is much less than the DC sectio, only 200 and 750 volts, in which case youll use the 200v setting..

Your picture posting is ok, it is the resolution of the picture that is the problem.

Thanks guys. I've only just got in from work so will check in the morning.
The three pics I posted were all done at different resolutions but all can out the same??? What resolution do you post at?

Its no wonder im a plumber and not an electrician.
I dont like being wrong so lets just i've been using the multimeter 'not right'

The ohms measurement goes to 0.00 (starts off as 1. without touching anything with the probes)
The voltage measurement is approx 45v at 5000rpm

Sorry for being a dick and taking so long to get the correct readings.
so............

Any ideas what this means?

Could it be the starter motor?
If the battery is ok and the alternator is ok and I think the reg/rec is ok...

The problem is when I try to start it and it turns over really slow and struggles but then picks up and gets faster and faster until it is turning over at the normal speed and then eventually fires up (providing the battery has recently been fully charged). What else could cause this?

I cant check the voltage starting low and rising yet cos it only does it from cold and i've had it running so will do that tomorrow.