Triumphrat

MN_Scrambled

After waiting 2 hours for road side assistance to jump a dead battery 2 miles from my house, I am convinced I should buy a charger unit like the road assistant brought -a briefcase-sized unit that was able to jump start it right up. I was looking at the Battery Tender Plus before my little stranding adventure. Can anyone recommend a unit that would do all the Tender Plus would, but also be able to jump the bike if I get stranded somewhere again nowhere near an outlet?

Forchetto

There are lots of those boxes available, some for vey little money, but they're not chargers. They just contain another battery inside that they use to jump start your stranded vehicle, as well as other features like a compressor, flashlight, etc.

Do a Google image search for something like "auto emergency power source" to see lots of them.

This sort of thing:



There are some high output battery chargers that either deliver a "boost" charge to the battery (lots of amps, something like 100 or 200A) or even turn over the engine directly from the mains but they're not suitable for motorcycle batteries and certainly not portable for roadside emergencies.

MN_Scrambled

Great, thanks a lot for the info.

Does anyone recommend an emergency power source rated for (or adjustable to) our bikes' batteries?

Ripper

I'm using one of these

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/images/...0311030.jpg?14

Its an excellent piece of kit, and in the reviews some have said 'It cranked the 6 litre engine of my Toyota Land Cruiser no problems'. No it didn't. It would melt if it had to crank a 6 litre motor.

What it did do, was transfer the power from its own internal battery to the Toyota's battery, building it up enough to crank the engine. So the Toyota's own battery cranked its own engine.

There are small power adapters that plug into the mains, with an output lead, no thicker than bell wire, which plugs into the accessory/cigarette lighter socket. You leave these things plugged in for about 10 or 20 minutes and they will trickle charge the battery enough to get a start. Either way you do it, unless you're using one of those huge mains starter/chargers that Forchetto mentions, which deliver serious current, you only have your own vehicle's battery to depend on.

If you get stranded on a bike, unless you are able to carry one of these Jump Starts with you (and they are big and heavy), there is no other method. The small power adapter is at least pocket sized and portable but you need a mains outlet. Your best bet in a situation like that is to carry jump leads and hope that a kindly passing motorist would stop to help. Or call roadside assistance, which is what you pay them for.

g0bgb

Battery tender all the way with a good AGM Battery , coldest winter day full charge bike starts heaven
these larger jump start devices like the Clarks one may be great to stick in your car boot but not much use for bike except at home

__________________
2004 790cc BONNY RED,Tec 2-2 , UNI filter, snorkel removed, jenks Velocity Stack,
125 / 42 Jets, AI removed, Pieman stage 1 Mods with 8200 rev Limit

MN_Scrambled

Thanks for the info. I actually want one of these kits to avoid calling road side assistance (or car jumping as I've read it works, but should be avoided due to possible overload).

Last time, I was stranded 2 miles from our place with no outlet nearby. My girlfriend could have drove me over one of these units, it would have saved me an hour and a half waiting for the "road side assistance" which I've heard can take up to six hours if they are busy.

MN_Scrambled

Agreed, I should have clarified. I had no intention of packing this along. Would just be a nice option if I ever stall again close to home.

Ripper

Ah, but that's what I thought you were asking about - something you could have with you. As I said there is no realistic option for this. You were fortunate that you got stranded 2 miles from home, but what about 100 miles, or 200?

I wholly agree about a good battery tender, however if you are like me and store the bike over winter, be very careful of which tender you choose. The Optimate for example is very popular but they have a nasty habit of leaving you with a dead battery after winter. When the battery reaches full charge the Optimate switches off as it should, but fails to switch back on when the battery voltage drops again. Personally I'm using a Lintek tender that hasn't had any problems so far in 3 years.

Forchetto

Agree. I carry a set of small jump leads under the seat.

These jump leads are not really big enough to enable direct starting from another car or bike battery as they're very thin, but they're good enough to transfer charge from another vehicle in an emergency: