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Batteries Dying Without Notice.


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#1 Riggers

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Posted 29 May 2019 - 11:33 am

I've had a few experiences both with my own bike and with friend's bikes where the battery simply dies without warning. Happened again over this bank holiday weekend when a few of us were touring around the North Yorskshire Moors. The bike started perfectly normally in the morning, followed by a few starts and stops during the day, and then suddenly nothing. Not a flicker of life in the battery. It was a Yuasa, around 5 years old, and regularly used and kept fully charged.

 

So my question is, is there any way of knowing when these so called 'maintenance free' batteries are on their way out? Or do we just have to just take pot luck and hope the RAC membership hasn't run out?

 

Cheers guys 

 

Riggers.



#2 ramo

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Posted 29 May 2019 - 05:38 pm

battery life seems to be mostly pot luck mate, 

 

or fit some kind of voltage indicator, my first TDM had 2  fitted, worked good, 

the reason my niner had 2 fitted, they used to need 2 be use 2, 1 for monitoring  battery voltage (when stood) and 1 for charging,

 

work really good I know of a few people with them fitted, I have one of the new version on my Blackbird, its spot on,

I have for the TDM not got round to fitting it yet, he says, tempting fate

 

they now do this which monitors both and looks like an alarm LED if wired direct to the battery, this is what I have now

 

https://www.ebay.co....=item2eb53d149e

 

I would recommend them 



#3 TKH

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Posted 29 May 2019 - 06:41 pm

Can the battery be re-charged? Could be the charging that's causing the problem rather than the battery?



#4 spike240

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Posted 29 May 2019 - 07:38 pm

How do you wire up the battery indicator referenced? Is it just connected up to the battery terminals?
TIA.

#5 ramo

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Posted 29 May 2019 - 08:03 pm

Spike 

 

you can wire it to a permanent live ie direct battery direct, which I have done ( and it looks like alarm)

 

or to a switched live and earth, if you wire through switched feed the led goes off completely when ignition is off,

 

simple to install 



#6 Riggers

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Posted 30 May 2019 - 10:31 am

battery life seems to be mostly pot luck mate, 

 

or fit some kind of voltage indicator, my first TDM had 2  fitted, worked good, 

the reason my niner had 2 fitted, they used to need 2 be use 2, 1 for monitoring  battery voltage (when stood) and 1 for charging,

 

work really good I know of a few people with them fitted, I have one of the new version on my Blackbird, its spot on,

I have for the TDM not got round to fitting it yet, he says, tempting fate

 

they now do this which monitors both and looks like an alarm LED if wired direct to the battery, this is what I have now

 

https://www.ebay.co....=item2eb53d149e

 

I would recommend them 

 

Thanks for that Ramo, I'll take a look at fitting a voltage indicator.  :good:



#7 Riggers

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Posted 30 May 2019 - 10:38 am

Can the battery be re-charged? Could be the charging that's causing the problem rather than the battery?

 

It seems not. Once these sealed maintenance free batteries die it seems that nothing more can be done. Old style 'wet' batteries always gave loads of warning that their best days were behind them, usually shown up by poor starting, or by needing to be charged more often etc. 

 

It's this lack of notice that's caught me out twice now. Fortunately this time Halfords in Scarborough came to the rescue and had a Yuasa in stock, and a couple of mates trundled off to buy it and get the party back on track.



#8 chrisr

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Posted 30 May 2019 - 09:43 pm

Seems to be the way they go now, I had mine on an optimate, took it off charge and......nothing. It had been fine up to this point. The tdm needs quite a bit to start too, so any weakness in the battery and thats your lot. I even jumped it and ran it for 30 miles then...nothing. And I had two gammatronix lights fitted, one for the charging circuit and one for battery condition.

Edited by chrisr, 30 May 2019 - 10:15 pm.

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#9 Riggers

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Posted 31 May 2019 - 06:56 pm

Seems to be the way they go now, I had mine on an optimate, took it off charge and......nothing. It had been fine up to this point. The tdm needs quite a bit to start too, so any weakness in the battery and thats your lot. I even jumped it and ran it for 30 miles then...nothing. And I had two gammatronix lights fitted, one for the charging circuit and one for battery condition.

 

Thanks Chris. In the nicest possible way I'm glad i'm not the only one this has happened to! I was thinking I must be doing something wrong......



#10 steve27bha

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Posted 31 May 2019 - 08:19 pm

.....

 

they now do this which monitors both and looks like an alarm LED if wired direct to the battery, this is what I have now

 

https://www.ebay.co....=item2eb53d149e

 

I would recommend them 

 - so would I.

 

My LED is in the bottom/back right hand corner of the fairing infill, near the screw. The cable goes along the main spar direct to the battery posts.


TDM900A 2008/09 in use, with     gallery_179098_391_770.jpg sml_gallery_179098_391_1145.jpg  gallery_179098_391_1206.jpg gallery_179098_391_253.jpg gallery_179098_391_82.jpg gallery_179098_391_725.gif gallery_179098_391_797.jpg gallery_179098_391_1396.jpg gallery_179098_391_501.jpg gallery_179098_391_316.jpg  gallery_179098_391_1768.jpg gallery_179098_391_106.jpggallery_179098_391_2170.jpg gallery_179098_391_1373.jpg

 

CBX750FE in reserve; Cagiva N90 125 now rebuilt & in use.



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