Starting Problem

[streetPol]

God, I hope this isn't just the beginning of a long nightmare...


But after riding my new Street Triple for about an hour just tooling around in between 10 and 35 mph, I cut the engine off and was messing with the control panel trying to get the trip odo to reset to zero. I tried several times holding the Scrolll and Set buttons for 2 seconds just as the manual said. I tried it both on the clock display and the avg. mpg. But I just couldn't get it to work. (Although it did successfully start to set the clock several times and cleared the avg. mpg display in the process depending on which screen was active at the time.) Any suggestions about what I am doing wrong in my attempts to simply reset the trip odo.

Now for my bigger problem...in the process of trying to get the trip odo to reset I apparently drained the battery to the point where the bike won't start now. The lights are a bit dimmed but the control panel lights but nothing happens when I hit the starter button. I am sure that I am in neutral (plus I have the clutch in anyway) and the kick stand is up and the kill switch is in the run position. Is the battery drained to the point of being unable to turn the bike over or am I missing something here?

I don't think that I had the bike turned on (but not running) for more than 45 mins. (Believe me I tried several times to get the trip to reset. ) Plus shouldn't the alternator have ensured a well charged battery over the hour that I ran the bike before I tried setting the trip odo? Is the battery in the Street Triple really that weak or is it possible that this bike which had a recalled rear suspension unit also had an undercharged battery or a bad alternator?

Regardless, any suggestions as to what is the best way to now recharge the battery so the bike will start? Can I just use a standard battery charger set to the proper setting indicated on the battery. I am inclined to call the dealership to tell them to come out and charge the battery.

Help please by offering your insight and suggestions.

By the way I didn't think about it at the time but the bike did not have the prep worksheet that someone indicated would come with the bike upon delivery. I am going to ask when I call the dealership in the morning. Is it possible that I may have one of the lesser Triumph dealerships?

[Diego]

If you have a battery charger that can provide the current specified on the battery, yes, it will be fine to use it.

Forty-five minutes is a long time to leave the lights powered on a non-running motorcycle! The headlight bulbs have the same drain as most car headlights, yet the battery is only a fraction of the size! Even if the battery was fully charged when you began, that would be enough to make cranking difficult.

[streetPol]

Is it ok to charge the battery while it still in the bike? The dealer mentioned something about attaching the battery to a particular type of battery charger and that the bike had some kind of quick connector in the battery cables to do this. I did not see anything in manual covering this aspect of the battery. Can someone shed additional light on this subject?

Thanks.

[ginkgobonny]

I picked up my street triple last month. I had a problem with the tach not zeroing properly after goping through the diagnostics. It would stop at lets say, four thousand rpm so that when I started the bike, it showed an idle of 5000 rpm. Otherwise, the bike ran fine. I brought it in last week for the initial 600 mile service and informed the service dept of this situation. When I picked it up, I was told that they could not get the prpoblem to re-materialize. Not surprised, because it had been an intermittant situation.

The day after I picked up the bike, I was out for a ride and stopped to return a cell phone call. I went to start the bike and the problem was back. The tach reved up and returned to a value much greater than zero. Only this time, the starter button did nothing.

After a phone call, my dealer came with a trailer and picked up the bike. The next day they called to say that the voltage regulator was bad. The bike had depleted the battery charge, and that they were waiting for the part.

I'm not sure that this is also your problem, but it might be.

[wozza.ie]

Originally Posted by streetPol

Is it ok to charge the battery while it still in the bike? The dealer mentioned something about attaching the battery to a particular type of battery charger and that the bike had some kind of quick connector in the battery cables to do this. I did not see anything in manual covering this aspect of the battery. Can someone shed additional light on this subject?

Thanks.

That sounds like an optimate - sort of battery charger people leave connected for long periods of time

For a straight charge (quick 1hr @ 4A, slow 5-8hr @ 1A, or whatever the battery says on it!), I'd remove the battery from the bike, just to be safe.

[Shakey]

Do yourself a favor and purchase a Battery Tender. Takes a bit to fully charge a very weak battery, but you attach the connector to the terminals and plug her in every night when you're finished riding. It'll extend the the life of your battery as well by keeping it properly charged. It has a circuit that trickle charges once the battery is topped off to prevent overcharging. I think mine cost $49.00, or something like that. I have one on each of my bikes.

[Diego]

Yes, you can charge the battery in the bike if you're using the standard charge rate printed on the battery. A quick charge... might be a good idea to take it out for that. A quick charge can result in higher than normal voltage across the battery terminals, and that can cause current to be dumped through the voltage regulator on some bikes. Also, if the battery is seriously defective and you put too much current through it, an explosion is possible; battery acid sprayed everywhere tends not to be good for a bike, or its operator.

As I wrote here yesterday morning (don't ask me what happened to the post) the quick-disconnect device your dealer was talking about is most likely a battery tender. In lower case, that's the generic term, though there's also a manufacturer who uses that as a brand name, plus Optimate, Yuasa, and others make such units.

It's not quite accurate to think of a battery tender as a trickle charger, though. Trickle chargers continuously push a fraction of an amp through the battery, regardless of the state of charge, which is not a good thing to do with a small one such as in a motorcycle. You want a device that monitors the battery's state of charge and cuts off current almost entirely when it is topped up; this is called "floating." That's what battery tenders do. They're especially useful if you don't ride for days at a time, and during cold weather even if you do ride regularly.

[pretzel]

It may be possible that the dealer did not charge the battery properly or adequately. +1 on the battery tender slow charge suggestion.

I left my parking lights on accidentally (which is too easy to do) one evening. I returned 3 hours later and saw the headlights on and my heart sank. To my surprise, the bike cranked right up! I put on the Battery Tender Jr. overnight, though, just to be safe. So, I am impressed with the stock battery.

Don't know about your troubles with the odo, though.

[streetPol]

I bought a Battery Tender Plus. I attached her to the quick connector about 20 min ago. I will check periodically to see how she is coming along. I am glad I have it. I have talked to so many people who have their bike batteries discharge after not riding for awhile. I hope to not have any real dry spells, but the assurance of the tender is nice.

UPDATE:
exactly I didn't keep watch of exactly how long it took to charge completely but when I last checked the tender had fully charged my battery and had switched over to to maintenance mode. I rode the bike a little bit after work and pulled the tender back on to the bike after putting it up. I did notice that the Battery Tender was quite warm after being connected for a couple of hours.

Have other folks found the tender too get a little warm over after being pulled in for a bit.

[streetPol]

I also figured out the problem I was having with the trip odo reset. I didn't read the prior pages of the manual that deal with trip odo reset. I was using the Trip Computer reset procedures (which are distinct and different from the trip odo ones.) To reset either trip odo 1 or 2 you need to make it the active display and hold the 'Trip' and 'Set' buttons at the same time.