dead battery

[greenbarn]

Which is why at that point it says to seek medical attention

LOL

[Tfrank59]

Which is why at that point it says to seek medical attention

[greenbarn]

You keep the little guy charged up when not in use, does it hurt?

only after about 4 hours....

[Bucko]

Buy a good quality AGM battery and you'll never need a Battery Tender again.  An AGM battery will loose about 1% of it's charger per month  Even if you let it sit a year, it would still have plenty of power to start your bike.

[CDNRatMan]

  You keep the little guy charged up when not in use, does it hurt?

Tfrank59 I took my battery to Battery Battery and asked them about doing a load test and what ever else they could to let me know if the battery was in good shape, pretty cool, they hook it up and then flipped a switch and it was like a bike trying to start, then they did a couple of other things, can not remember it all, but it came back with a 100% good to go tag......

[greenbarn]

I'm a battery tender fan also.  Keeps the little guy charged up when not in use.

One other thing to consider when push-starting... If the battery is completely dead, you won't get any spark, so it won't start.

[OR Seedman]

I got a tender with mine when I bought it last year....whenever the bike is going to sit for longer than a week,  I hook it up to it....the previous owner left a connector plug hanging right under the edge of the seat on the left side (behind the choke cable pull), so it is out of the way but easy to reach....I keep all my research equipment on tenders all winter long....most of my atv and small tractor batteries last at least 3 times longer that way.....

[Old Drifter]

The previous owner gave me a battery tender with my bike and it has the little pigtail to plug it in but I never bothered.

I's a good idea to plug in the battery tender/maintainer. I use mine whenever the bike is parked in the garage.

[Tfrank59]

Yeah I like to think that I ride all winter and that's what keeps my bikes alive during the colder months, but we had so much rain this past winter that I could barely ever ride the thing.  The previous owner gave me a battery tender with my bike and it has the little pigtail to plug it in but I never bothered. I think as long as I have a new battery I should be good for a while. One thing I learned through this episode is that I can actually pop start my bike in second gear which is pretty cool. I can't do that with my 1500 no way. Ratman I did not know you hibernate with your motorcycle 

[CDNRatMan]

Tfrank59,
As you know I keep my ride in the living room all winter long, and during that time I am messing with the lights horns and such and adding and doing mods. Come Mar I put the battery on a tender and leave in on there till May when I am ready to start to ride. Like yourself I was not sure of how old the battery was so I took it in and had it load tested and bench test, I had the local shop do every test they could, and it passed with flying colours.......Worth the time and effort.
Glad your issue was a simple one.....

[Tfrank59]

Follow up: so I didn't bother bringing my old battery down to get it load tested. I just went ahead and bought a new battery and put it in and she fired right up. happy ending. thanks a lot!

[Tfrank59]

Hi Frank, battery can show fully charged but still not be able to take a load such as starting the bike.
Pull it again and take it to your local auto parts store and they should be able to test it properly with a load tester.
If it is good then make sure both connections are clean and tight and then  the first thing to check is the frame ground at the
other end of the negative cable. If this is loose your battery will not get a charge also. If it is tight also then you move on to
look somewhere else. Hopefully it's that simple.

aralph

okay will do thanks!!!!!

[aralph]

Hi Frank, battery can show fully charged but still not be able to take a load such as starting the bike.
Pull it again and take it to your local auto parts store and they should be able to test it properly with a load tester.
If it is good then make sure both connections are clean and tight and then  the first thing to check is the frame ground at the
other end of the negative cable. If this is loose your battery will not get a charge also. If it is tight also then you move on to
look somewhere else. Hopefully it's that simple.

aralph

[Tfrank59]

Update. Well I just pulled the battery and threw my charger on it and within five minutes it was fully charged so that's not the problem. could it be the starter relay?  electrical gurus please weigh in how can I check this if it's the starter or something between the battery and the starter?

Another update. So I just put the fully charged battery back in and tried it and I'm getting the same clicking sound right there in the electrical box to the right rear of the battery (what's in there?  hard to access it)  please help!  Thanks!!

[geewago]

You know what - I bet you need a new battery. 

[Tfrank59]

So I was down at the Taco Shop and when I got ready to go home -- nothing,  just a click click. It totally blindsided me. Fortunately I was able to push start the thing in second gear with no problem. I don't know how old the battery is I've had the Bike 2 years it's an 06 so I'm guessing the battery has seen better days and I'm going to replace it. Should I be checking something else like the charging system?  I wouldn't know how to do that if you say I should, but if this helps the bike runs fine when you get it started so it must have been running off of the alternator?