[gnj]

This July I left my lights on and ended up having some friends who work on bikes and motorcycles all the time jump start it with a battery pack. I had never used one but after I learned this can be a really bad idea. Anyway, since then whenever I put my battery on a trickle charger it shows that it is already charged even when I know it isn't. For example, I had a few weeks where I couldn't ride so before I went for a ride I put in on the battery tender and in less than a minute it showed the battery "fully charged." Nevertheless, when I tried to start it up, the battery was a bit dim and it took awhile to turn over. Since I got a new job, it has made riding or commuting almost impossible, so today after not riding much for about a month, I tried to start my bike and it was very dim and I couldn't get it to turn over and then it just went completely dead. Not ever a dim light. Nada. So, I put it on the charger and it was supposedly fully charged in about thirty seconds. Tomorrow I am going to get a new battery but could this be something much worse? While recently I haven't been able to ride much, I was able to ride about 1000 miles on it since I had to jump it. Could I have fried my alternator or something else? Like I said, I was able to put on a good deal of miles without issue. It would make sense that it might be dead, however, it doesn't make sense why the battery tender is showing that it is full.

 

[Forchetto]

Lead-acid batteries don't like to be fully discharged like that. Once the terminal voltage drops below 9 volts or so permanent damage happens.

Some chargers have a recovery facility whereby they initiate a pulse charge sequence and this sometimes works.

In your case I would get a new one.

 

[PAAS]

I've occasionally read that jump starting a bike from a car battery can lead to dire consequences but I've never met (even virtually) anyone it has happened to and have jumped most of my bikes from a (12V) car battery at some point without any problems. You just need to be careful when you're connecting and disconnecting the jump leads and it's probably not a good idea to have the car engine running at the time. The bike's starter and electronics will just draw the current it wants from the battery. I think you've probably just got a dead battery. Make sure you commission the new one properly and use a battery tender if you don't get to ride the bike very often.

 

[thebiglad]

I've heard this idea about jump starting from a car battery being a bad idea but I don't understand why? 12 volts is still just 12 volts. It's not like the car battery is going to force more juice in the bike's electrical systems, as I think (????) I'm right in saying that the bike's system will just draw what they need, rather than the battery forcing in too much and overpowering the bike.

Making the connections carefully and in the right order is important though.


Sounds like new battery time to me too.

Dave

 

[Srxy]

This July I left my lights on and ended up having some friends who work on bikes and motorcycles all the time jump start it with a battery pack. I had never used one but after I learned this can be a really bad idea. Anyway, since then whenever I put my battery on a trickle charger it shows that it is already charged even when I know it isn't. For example, I had a few weeks where I couldn't ride so before I went for a ride I put in on the battery tender and in less than a minute it showed the battery "fully charged." Nevertheless, when I tried to start it up, the battery was a bit dim and it took awhile to turn over. Since I got a new job, it has made riding or commuting almost impossible, so today after not riding much for about a month, I tried to start my bike and it was very dim and I couldn't get it to turn over and then it just went completely dead. Not ever a dim light. Nada. So, I put it on the charger and it was supposedly fully charged in about thirty seconds. Tomorrow I am going to get a new battery but could this be something much worse? While recently I haven't been able to ride much, I was able to ride about 1000 miles on it since I had to jump it. Could I have fried my alternator or something else? Like I said, I was able to put on a good deal of miles without issue. It would make sense that it might be dead, however, it doesn't make sense why the battery tender is showing that it is full.

As the great John Cleese once put it:
'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This battery is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-BATTERY!!

And no...he doesn't have beautiful plummage. Every battery that I've had die on me quickly goes to "full" when it's charged, but any load on it immediately drains it.

 

[thebiglad]

As the great John Cleese once put it:
'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This battery is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-BATTERY!!

And no...he doesn't have beautiful plummage. Every battery that I've had die on me quickly goes to "full" when it's charged, but any load on it immediately drains it.

Just lurved that !!!!!

 

[gnj]

Update:
So, I took my battery out and put it on the ohm meter and it is showing 12.7 right now, however, I am not even getting my lights on. Still, this doesn't make sense to me—on average a battery should loose between 1-2% and having ridden once in the last few weeks, it should have at least needed at little more charging than just 30 seconds.
So, I opened up the fuse box by the key on my America and supposedly they are all OK. Could the problem be the ignition switch? I mean, yesterday I cranked it up (albeit it took awhile) and it did start for a few seconds. When I adjusted my choke, I heard a click and everything went dead. Now, I get no lights of any kind, nothing. With the key in is the same as without. Any ideas before I take it in? Is there another place where a fuse might have blown?

Just to be clear. It didn't start up again today, once I heard a click yesterday, it has been game over since then.

 

[oddsteven]

You've killed your battery, so now essentially you have a very large 12V penlight battery. It has 12V at probably .5 amps. If it weren't so darn heavy you could convert it to book light use.

Discharging it that far killed it and you have dead cells inside it.

 

[mikeinva]

your battery is bad replace it the jump start didnt hurt a thing the battery was all ready bad.You can jump start any thing with any 12 volt battery and wont hurt a thing just dont start anything you are jumping off of when jumping a small battery like we use on these bikes.You can jump these bikes off a d9 cat battery if you want 12 volts is 12 volts.The bike will only pull what it needs out the battery.The only time you would ever burn anything up on the bike was if the bike had a short or bad starter to start with that made it pull more amps then it should.

 

[alfacliff]

its called a "surface charge" the battery shows full voltage, but dies reall soon. just cant supply the current anymore.
the problem with jump starting is when the car is running, the voltage in the charging system might be high, ur bikes use a "shunt regulator" which shunts excess to ground when the voltage is high. the car alternator is rated much higher than your system is rated, guess which gets fried. if you want to jumpstart, do it from a car thats not running.
cliff

 

[DUCKMAN]

If the battery is more then two years...just by a new one. The old battery is obviously not holding a charge.

Jumpstarting a bike with a car poses little risk...provided the car is NOT RUNNING. A running car can produce a surge which may damage the stator or other EXPENSIVE electrical components.