pmolzer Posted May 11, 2016 Share Posted May 11, 2016 After a long winter of being mostly on a tender, my battery is permanently dead. It is 1 year old, too young to die. Could be I was not consistent enough with keeping it on the tender. Recently I found I could get it to charge enough to start up and go for a ride, but now it won't charge enough after a full night on the tender to start. What is best practice for someone that rides about twice a week and not at all in the winter? Should I keep it on a tender whenever it is parked? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coleman67 Posted May 11, 2016 Share Posted May 11, 2016 I have another, older bike that gets ridden about as often as you describe - and yes, I always keep it on a tender when I'm not riding it. They battery is over 3 years old now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rick Posted May 11, 2016 Share Posted May 11, 2016 Both of my bikes and my car (8 years old now, only 9k miles and still on its OE battery) live 24/7 on Optimates. The 2 things that kill batteries are heat and letting them get discharged where they then get sulfated - pretty much a death knell for a battery. A good battery tender will never overheat/overcharge a battery, so if you can, leave it hooked up and forget about it. Even after wintering in an outdoor garage the battery will be fresh and ready to go come spring and next week. The other choice is go LiFePO4. Those batteries will hold a charge far longer w/o being charged and survive a discharge sorta OK - I'd still pull the main fuses for longer periods. The biggest downside - they are a bit pricey and don't work all that well when it's really cold out. That's a problem for my high compression, big twin Aprilia - not so much with the FZ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member so1102 Posted May 11, 2016 Premium Member Share Posted May 11, 2016 Could be a number of things: bad connection, bad battery, bad tender... But yeah, in general if it is sitting idle for more than a couple of weeks I like to hook mine up to a tender. You might also have something (perhaps caused by modifications?) that is draining the battery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ralph Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 I hook mine up via a timer switch so the tender comes on for about a hour a day no problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beemer Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 Yes, keep it on a tender and I believe our manual says something regarding that. I could be wrong. Beemer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xeon Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 I always plug my tender in if the bike is not going to be ridden in the next 48hours. Just leave it on the tender and the battery should last you years. 2016 Raven (White) ~ Akrapovic Carbon Exhaust / 2WDW ECU Flash / CRG LS Mirrors / Seat Concepts Seat / Givi Windscreen / OES Sliders / R6 Throttle Tube / Ohlins YA419 & NIX22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigity Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 I can't speak for the winter time, as I ride all winter, but for regular riding frequency, sometimes I go a whole week without riding and it starts just fine. My battery is almost two years old and feels new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmwpowere36m3 Posted May 15, 2016 Share Posted May 15, 2016 A battery in good condition should stay "good" for over a month without charging… In the winter, when I don't ride for months I throw the tender on every month or so. Within a few minutes it's fully charged, but I leave it overnight. In riding season, every so often I don't ride for a week or two (due to work, travel, weather, etc…) and I don't touch it. Never had any problems. Batteries discharge slower in cooler temps, actually. That said, if you have something that's causing an abnormally high current draw…. that might kill the battery quicker. Any aftermarket gizmos installed? Pull the negative battery cable off the battery and hook up a DMM and measure the current draw with the key off. It should be in the mA (milli-amp) range, single digits, maybe teens. I'd also try using another battery charger or tender/maintainer, maybe the one you have is a dud and is not charging the battery properly. However at this point, the battery might be beyond saving. Each time the battery is depleted below a certain voltage, permanent damage occurs (loss of starting capacity, CCA) and it increases the more its drained and each time it happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cassecou Posted May 15, 2016 Share Posted May 15, 2016 After a long winter of being mostly on a tender, my battery is permanently dead. Battery tenders are worth their weight in gold. Its a must for cars and bikes. Its a good idea to "tenderize ?" your battery when not using the battery for an extended time. Lead acid batteries love to be full. This spring, after parking the bike for a week, the battery went dead ☠. To this day, I don't understand why. But the battery was so dead that the battery tender wouldn't recharge it. So I connected the dead battery to a fully charge battery (pairing them together), which forced both batteries to want to share in half all the energy of one battery. When done, the battery tender filled up the rest. Since then, that battery has been flawless, but it had only been fully discharged for a very short time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rick Posted May 15, 2016 Share Posted May 15, 2016 One thing that will cause a fair amount of drain is an alarm system. They're more common in parts of Europe than in the states. dunno if the MT version came with an "immobilizer" installed, but I'll bet those bikes have bigger issues with batteries going flat. Best thing is just have an SAE pigtail or mount a BMW style socket wired right to the battery. That way the seat doesn't have to come off and you can just plug in and let the tender do it's job. Can easily expect a battery to last 5 years if always kept fully charged. Your starter motor, starter solenoid, and sprague clutch will also thank you in the long run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmolzer Posted May 15, 2016 Author Share Posted May 15, 2016 I have a Noco genius tender that came with a weatherproof pigtail. I've got it zip tied to the frame in an on obtrusive place and it's very convenient. I'm making it a point now to plug in whenever I put the bike back in the garage. Wound up replacing the battery with an a aftermarket clone. Not happy with the battery as I'll expand on in a gear review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ChicagoAJ Posted May 16, 2016 Share Posted May 16, 2016 Over winter I always just bring the batteries from my toys in the house and keep them there. Maybe charge them once a month or so, but that's about it. Never had any battery problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ralph Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 Mine as the immobiliser it flashes a led for 24 hours then goes into a sleep mode to save the battery I ride in winter but the bike as been standing for 2 or 3 weeks at times and just fires up, the battery tender as been on another bike so the MT had to fend for itself, maybe you just got a bad battery even Yuasa must get it wrong now and then, or could you have turned the key the extra click it leaves some circuits live but I don't know if any of them are a drain on the battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ChicagoAJ Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 Mine as the immobiliser it flashes a led for 24 hours then goes into a sleep mode to save the battery I ride in winter but the bike as been standing for 2 or 3 weeks at times and just fires up, the battery tender as been on another bike so the MT had to fend for itself, maybe you just got a bad battery even Yuasa must get it wrong now and then, or could you have turned the key the extra click it leaves some circuits live but I don't know if any of them are a drain on the battery. Do you find after the couple months it has been sitting it takes the engine a few extra cranks to finally start? I've left mine for a little over a week and it seems to do a harder crank than normal but still has no trouble starting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ralph Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 Maybe slightly longer to fire, maybe due to modern fuels they soon go off, I had a Honda and that would not start if you left it a month unless you changed the fuel but the MT starts up ok, think the MT turns longer on the starter than most, I put it down to the auto decompresser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ChicagoAJ Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 Maybe slightly longer to fire, maybe due to modern fuels they soon go off, I had a Honda and that would not start if you left it a month unless you changed the fuel but the MT starts up ok, think the MT turns longer on the starter than most, I put it down to the auto decompresser. Yea, that's what I was referring to. It definitely turns longer on the starter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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