The only bike I've had on the road long enough to know the battery life is my GSX14 & that runs a Yuasa. It's now on it's third, fitted this month, at 22 years old. So I get approx ten years life by just using bike the bike regularly & nothing else. It's probably seen a charger three times since I got it in 2007, all after stator failures..

 

I've had the same battery in my 955 Tiger since 2009. Every winter it's in an unheated garage on a tender.

 

If your battery is in an unheated garage on a tender you must not in northern Canada. This winter on December 15 it was -45c without a wind chill, the high for the day -39c. It was like that for weeks. Even our SUV needed to be started and ran at highway speeds to help the battery and it was plug in with a block heater. Anybody who left their batteries in their bikes will be buying a new in the spring. Mine were removed and put on a charger downstairs. In northern BC we can’t ride much past October until April so it best to remove the battery. 6 years on the Triumph and 9 years on the BMW battery

 

Lived in and around Edmonton my whole life.

 

That far south wow. I wish

 

Nine years on the original Yuasa in my '14 Thruxton- unheated garage, on a Battery Tender...of course, now that I have mentioned this, it will probably fail next time I try to start the bike...

 

10+ years from the OEM battery in a Sportster in a heated garage with a tender on one week a month over the winter.

7+ years from a replacement AGM battery, from the same OEM supplier, in that Sportster in a heated garage with a tender on one week a month over the winter when I sold it.

Poor quality tenders can cook a battery to an premature death.

Seems the secret to battery longevity is a quality battery on a quality tender over the winter.


OptiMate 4 Dual Program - OptiMate

 

10+ years from the OEM battery in a Sportster in a heated garage with a tender on one week a month over the winter.

7+ years from a replacement AGM battery, from the same OEM supplier, in that Sportster in a heated garage with a tender on one week a month over the winter when I sold it.

Poor quality tenders can cook a battery to an premature death.

Seems the secret to battery longevity is a quality battery on a quality tender over the winter.


OptiMate 4 Dual Program - OptiMate

This was the first purchase after getting my 2016 TTR, still OEM battery and every spring the battery turns over the crank without hesitation. Every day I go into my garage and see the OpiMate 4 is on and I can see the function being performed!

 

I had a stock battery in a ‘17 Harley Softail Slim that lasted me 4 years in an unheated St. Louis garage and on a tender when I wasn’t riding it. The stock batteries in both Sportsters I’ve owned both died after two years in the same conditions.

I first bought the Harley branded version of this and liked it so much I bought an unbranded one and hooked it up to my Thruxton RS.

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Letting them freeze is what kills them. I bring mine in for the night when I am expecting temps under 0 C (32 F). I am still using the original battery that came with my 2014 Bonnie and it still fires right up even when I go for winter rides.

 

A fully charged battery kept on a maintenance charger will not freeze until a temp of around -75ºF. That number approaches 32ºF for less than 100% charge. Freezing for a lead/acid battery is very dependant on state of charge.

 

I have a 1996 Vespa PX200. Gets used maybe three or four times a year, even less during COVID lockdowns. The battery in that is nearly 12 years old and it starts on the button even after not being run for three months.
Same brand of battery in my Speed Triple needs replacing after two years. Go figure.

 

The secret is Don't live somewhere so damn cold!! Aaarrgggh, How can you take that cold? Like the bloke says, decent runs to keep it charged up.

 

The requirements for starting a 200cc Vespa are WAY less than that for a 1200cc twin .
Why do you ride your Vespa so seldom ? The scooters I've ridden over the years were
always a blast to ride . Peter

 

The requirements for starting a 200cc Vespa are WAY less than that for a 1200cc twin .

Yes I agree but the battery is correspondingly smaller, it's only 2.3AH and 85CCA. Don't even have it on a trickle charger.

Why do you ride your Vespa so seldom? The scooters I've ridden over the years were always a blast to ride

Yes they are fun but I only drag it out for the occasional club treasure hunt and the odd charity event. I also have a 1960s Lambretta as well as my Speed Triple 1050 and a KTM 1290 SuperDuke which also needs a fresh battery every couple of years. The battery will start the bike but the electronics go awry if it's less than 100%. Random TRC errors and exhaust valve errors are the first sign the battery needs replacing. ECU and MCU threshold voltages are way too critical on modern bikes combined with a desire to fit smallish batteries to keep the weight down.

 

(1) I use the smaller 750-800 mA battery tender (ie not the common 1.5A model) this avoid battery boiling. (2) I use a digital timer that cycles the tender 75 seconds per hour (that's 30m per day) -- this avoids peak charging. Letting a lead acid voltage dip down is really bad for them, the trick is to not let that happen. Don't let it sit self discharging all winter, for a month, or even 2 weeks.

 

Terry Colly, you do know KTM stands for "Keep throwing money" My old TRX Yamaha that I register for three or six months a year I disconnect the positive terminal when rego runs out and give it an hour on the tricklecharger next spring and it's good to go. My garage doesn't get real cold though. Battery lasts about eight to ten years.

 

Terry Colley, you do know KTM stands for "Keep throwing money"

It's about on par with every Hinckley Triumph I've had - and I've had quite a few.

 

Glad to see so many people getting roundabout a decade out of their batteries! I'm in Toronto Canada which is more north than some, but apparently a lot less north than others haha. We get some real bad cold and long winters here and a lot of people neglect their batteries. I might get close to a decade out of mine, but I have plenty of customers closer to the 3 year mark.

Also just want to say thanks everyone for chiming in, it's been really cool seeing all of these replies. Thought I was the only one who cared about this stuff. Cheers!

 

Whenever my battery goes bad, I just buy a new bike. New bikes come with new batteries included.

 

Trouble I'm having is, I just keep buying more bikes, and the batteries never die.

 

Same here. 33 and counting!

 

I wouldn't ride very far from home with battery more than 5 yrs old. When the battery in my garden tractor dies I take the battery out of my bike that has the oldest one. Put that one in the tractor and get a new one for the bike. Batteries are cheap, after spending thousands on a bike why chintz out on a battery? I know Guzzi behavior.
kk

 

The way I see it, is people who keep buying bikes are buying the wrong ones. Cause when I get a bike I like I keep it for good.

 

Or we have a bit more disposable income and the attention span of a fruit fly... I get bored easily and like to try out different bikes. I do wish I could get something and just enjoy it for what it is for a long time, but it doesn't seem to be in my nature...

 

I once had a Kawasaki 1500 Vulcan ( 1st gen., 4spd). That bike got ridden just about every weekend. Always bought Yuasa batteries for it.
The thing with that bike was the battery was only good for a year. Never gave an indication battery was going. First two times it happened bike cold started great then just randomly no juice on start up at some point in the ride.
It got so I marked the calendar when I put in a new battery and just replaced it twelve months later.
Everything else checked out fine on the bike.
Dealer found no issues with charging system and Kawasaki tech. support had no clue.

 

I am happy getting 5 years out of my original battery so far, it's needs a quick charge if I let it sit for 3 weeks but if riding all the time it's still good but it will be replaced soon before winter hits and I get new batteries for 1/2 price so not bad for me.
Getting 6 years + out of a battery well all I can say one day it will let you down without warning and you could be stuck somewhere far from help.
It only takes one cell to fail to kill your battery and they will do it without warning.