if you have a motorcycle battery, look at what the crank amperage rating says.
look at your car battery, what is the crank amperage?
That is what is flowing out of that battery at a non phased state (it supplies that amount without additional help)
Yes - 12v is 12v - but the fact remains - the car battery will have nearly 1.5 times more amperage output than a motorcycle battery does running through the motorcycle battery running through it's alternator if equipped. Which, might not be that much, but when fuses are only rated (not to mention rectifiers and stators) for a maximum load, it can hurt your bike, possibly a lot. Depending on how much load your bike is rated for... especially with something as touchy as an ECU.
It's simple really, when you put your finger in the socket in your wall do you think there's some magic button in you to say "no thanks, I only want .000007 amps to run through me. " Nope, it's going to float out 120volt at a pretty painful amperage setting. You can try it like I did when I was about 5 if you don't believe me - but be careful - it can KILL YOU! As I remember, the human heart only need 7 MILLIAMPS to stop beating at a 120 voltage setting.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...3192542AAq837f - read here.
The same thing for bikes - once you connect your bike to that battery all amperage settings are running through it . That's why I say DON'T JUMP YOUR BIKE FROM A CAR BATTERY, especially when the car is running. That is most certain death for a lot of things (as previously noted in my post).
Will you utlimately stop the universe and blow up your bike if you connect a car battery (away from the car and the car NOT RUNNING) to your bike and start it - more than likely not. But it's not good for it. If you HAVE to do this - make sure the car is off, or the battery out. Thats all. Go ahead, talk to everyone you want to, ask all the questions to all those people who say "i've done it a million times - no problems that I can tell." But numbers, especially with the physics side of things involved don't lie. I won't do it, even if it doesn't supposedly hurt the bike. Afterall, a lot of people said "cigarrettes never hurt nothing"...just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it doesn't hurt your electrical system.