Why the battery needs to be on trickle charge?

[Crogers]

bike is only about a year old and needs to be on a charger? I went out to my shed and the lights came on bright but I got nothing when I pressed the starter button.
I did not ride it for about 2 weeks and it has been down in the 30 deg.s temp.
I had to put my charger on for about 10 minutes for it to crank over.
Does the clock draw that much juice to weaken the battery?

I guess I will need to put it on the charger every so often when I dont believe you should have to do it after 2 weeks of non use?

[mnhoulden]

Have you tested the battery? May be toast and not holding a charge.

[alfacliff]

lead acid batteries loose power just sitting. I dont remember the amount, but due to internal losses, they discharge themselvs. between that and the idioticly high voltage set in the computer, the batteries are up enough to start, but the computer wont let them.

[Joe Houle]

The computer is set like that to save your sprag from labored cranking.

You want it.

[alfacliff]

My son put in the bypass switch. his thruxton now states fine. having the voltage set at 12.5 volts is not very low, most cars are set at 10 volts or lower. the normal charged battery setting around for a few days will go below 12.5 volts on its own, and yet still have plenty of power for starting.

[Speed3]

Battery Tenders are cheap insurance. They only cost something like 35 bucks. I plug mine in every time I park my bike at home, and never have starting problems. The battery will last longer as well.

[Joe Houle]

The S3 is 10.3v

[FoothillRyder]

If your bike is going to sit at all (even a couple of days) and the temps are dropping down to 30 (F) or below, just bite the bullet and get a tender. Then it won't matter how long the bike sits or how low the temperature goes. Twenty-five bucks is as cheap as that kind of insurance gets.

A second benefit is that keeping a battery at (or near) full charge gives it extra life. I finally had to replace the battery in my Trophy at 7 years old. It was always on a tender when parked at home, and it always started.

[12340987]

it's not that ECUs are programmed to stop functioning below 10V, it's more like they just can't as a rule of thumb from a chevy tech i knew. Makes sense to me, can't use a flashlight with low batteries, why would a computer be any different. Even if you had 9V and a billion amps, that starter would be turning slow, but for a really long time.

Lead acid batteries sulfate just sitting there, that is the lead paste slowly turns into a hard crystalline state, which renders it physically unusable. A computer controlled charger will prevent this from happening. I've even seen desulfation modes listed in the instructions of some.

[hac]

Originally Posted by Crogers

bike is only about a year old and needs to be on a charger? I went out to my shed and the lights came on bright but I got nothing when I pressed the starter button.
I did not ride it for about 2 weeks and it has been down in the 30 deg.s temp.
I had to put my charger on for about 10 minutes for it to crank over.
Does the clock draw that much juice to weaken the battery?

I guess I will need to put it on the charger every so often when I dont believe you should have to do it after 2 weeks of non use?

Does it have an alarm fitted? that will drain it also.I have stated before the best accessory I have bought for my bike is an optimate 4 trickle charger,the bike is always plugged in when not in use.The optimate does a half hour charge, half hour no charge whilst monitoring the battery cycle.Everytime the bike comes out of the shed I know I have a fully charged battery.