Battery issues

[Larry David]

I have bought a new battery for my bike as the other one packed up and the shop charged it up for me. I put it in the bike last night and the bike started with no issues.

This morning however, the bike really struggled to start. It took a lot of pushing the starter button and pulling back on the throttle. When I left work to get home, it started first time but was extremely laboured.

Can anybody advise as to what the issue could be? Could it be a duff battery or something?

[DAB]

Sounds like the battery is not charging well, how long is your drive to work, do you use stop/start and is it still under warrantee?

[Mel46]

Put a charger on it at night, every night, for a while. It sounds like the charge the dealer put on it was what is known as a surface charge, which doesn't do much for the battery except get you going out the door. It needs at least 10 miles of riding to start to recharge it after a cold start. The Start/Stop button can drain the battery quickly if you have a lot of it in a short time. Get a battery tender and hook the leads to the battery permanently so that you can easily plug the charger in. If you live where you have to leave the bike outside, cold will drain a battery too.

[Larry David]

Thanks for the replies. My journey to work is about 15 mins - about 6 miles. Unfortunately I don't have a garage so it stays outside. However, it was outside all of last winter and I never had any issues, always started. I think I'm going to have to invest in a charger although I can't see how I'm going to be able to have leads permanently attached to the battery when I use the bike everyday and it has to stay outside.

[iceman]

Where car batteries are concerned, apparently storing them in warm conditions causes greater self-discharge than storing them in colder climes (from google, which surprised me when I read about this as I thought keeping a battery warm was best - not so). Actually, storing camera lithium batteries in plastic in the fridge is also mentioned as best to preserve their life, rather than leaving them in warm rooms.

[DAB]

Thanks for the replies. My journey to work is about 15 mins - about 6 miles. Unfortunately I don't have a garage so it stays outside. However, it was outside all of last winter and I never had any issues, always started. I think I'm going to have to invest in a charger although I can't see how I'm going to be able to have leads permanently attached to the battery when I use the bike everyday and it has to stay outside.

If it was ok last year getting a charger will not help as there is a problem. Check all connections for corrosion. Suspect the new battery is ok, maybe charging system is not.

[frog13]

Larry David , was your issue ever remedied ?.