Having spent an age sorting bodywork issues with my NC35 (as mentioned elsewhere) I seem to have struck a problem with the electrics. One step forward, two steps back Tried to start the bike yesterday. It usually takes two, sometimes three attempts. For the first two, the starter did it's thing and the engine almost caught, then on the third attempt there was a click and the lights went out! So there must be a gremlin in the electrics, right?
When it's not being used it's on the Optimate. I connected it up again and the Optimate seems to be flashing all the right LEDs, so I'm guessing it's not the battery.
Is my next port of call the fuse box? Sorry if that's blindingly obvious, but I don't want to start ripping off the 'just fitted' bodywork if there's something else I should check first.

witout seeing the bike a click sound is uslaly the soud of the starter relay and usally caused by a dead battery.

It can be a few other things such as a siezed engine / hyrdolock from fuel / coolant in the bores but i cant see it being the case if it didnt happen straight away, ie it turned over a couple fo times then died.

you can check for a stuck engien by putting the bike into gear, 4th, 5th or 6th will do and push the bike without the clutch in and it should turn over.

Do you have another battery or somebdoy able to test the battery in another bike? this problen is 90% bad battery.

Other problems that can cause it are things like a bad earth connection / bad positive battery connection, bad realy itself, bad fitting main fuse (in the relay) and bad fitting connectors on the relay and tot he starter motor or even a bad relay.

only a hand full of wires to check there, the battery cables are big and thick so is the starter relay cable to the starter motor.

get the cables checked and get the battery proven and see how that goes.

i would wager that the battery is no good, even thoguh its charged it might not have the capacity to turn the bike for more tha na couple of turns

Ok, thanks and I'll have a go at what you've suggested but if the Optimate charges the battery (and flashes it's green LED to tell me it has) then wouldn't there be a glimmer from the dash lights, headlight, indicators? Even if it wasn't holding enough charge to turn over the engine, surely there'd be enough to stir the lights? If the battery was totally zapped, wouldn't the Optimate show this? Also, there is absolutely no sound, clicking or otherwise, when I turn the key and press the button. Would this suggest the main fuse was the culprit?
I'll whip the battery out this weekend and stick it in the FireBlade. Another daft question, is the NC35 battery compatible with the FireBlade? I really ought to know this stuff shouldn't I? Thanks for your patience!

Probably the battery. My bike is on an optimate and that was showing green for me - but I'd lost a cell in my battery - so it would come up to 13v, but drop to 9v under any load. How old is the battery? If more than 3yrs, just buy a new one. You'll need one soon anyhow and they don't cost much.

Stick a volt meter across the battery and put the ignition on with lights but no engine running. How long does it take to drop below 10v? It should be able to manage 15mins easy.

Following your suggestions I connected the NC35 battery to the FireBlade and got nothing. So the battery is bollox. I put the FireBlade battery in the NC35 (too big to fit properly, but managed a loose connection). Lights etc all working but when I pressed the starter...'click' and lights out. So what's going on? Why won't it start with the FireBlade battery?
Put the Fireblade battery back in the FireBlade and everything's fine.
New battery on its way. Fingers crossed.

"A loose connection" might explain why the FireBlade battery did not start your NC35. Until the connections are satisfactory it would be difficult investigate the problem further.

Foxy400 wrote:Following your suggestions I connected the NC35 battery to the FireBlade and got nothing. So the battery is bollox. I put the FireBlade battery in the NC35 (too big to fit properly, but managed a loose connection). Lights etc all working but when I pressed the starter...'click' and lights out. So what's going on? Why won't it start with the FireBlade battery?
Put the Fireblade battery back in the FireBlade and everything's fine.
New battery on its way. Fingers crossed.

indeed.

the connections need to be screwed onto the battery, if there loose the huge current draw off the starter motor will just cause a spark or a click.

new battery in and doubel check charging system is outputting what its upposed to in order to ensure your new battery isnt toatsted.

Thanks for the advice. Will let you know how it goes.

New battery sorted it. Obvious really :-). Thanks again for the advice.