Dead Battery

[charismaticmegafauna]

Bounce: All of that to point out that even a design that perports to run at 100% all the time (with the excess shunted to the frame) can have a shortened life expectancy when accessories run at-or-near 100%. Real world cases have been known to fly in the face of theory.

I guess you either believe in electrical theory or you don't....I don't happen to think there's any *magic* involved and all failures would be explainable if enough research could be applied. As witnessed by many of the posts, here, of jump-starting and push starting, etc -- there's alot that goes on out in the field that would make the engineers groan. I'd venture a guess that many, most, if not all of the failures were caused by owners who neglected batteries, failed to buy new batteries when needed, had corroded alternator out-put connections, or some other incident inducing malady. There is a case to be made, tho, (imo) for permanent magnet type alternators running in engine oil -- bad idea in my book (the alternators are hot enough, they don't need the added heat of engine oil). The *theory* being, I think, that the engine oil would be a coolant -- time for another theory....Still....there's little argument that the "automotive style" alternators used by Hon, Yam, Suz, Kaw, BMW..... have a far better track record.

And, I agree, "It pays to husband your charging system." I'd add "not doing dumb things" to that. Just to be on the safe side.

 

[charismaticmegafauna]

torch  Posted on Nov 21 2005, 07:03 PMAnother "side-of-the-road" emergency trick is to swap out batteries with a running bike.

I have a little story about that: Years ago, while riding on the East Coast with a buddy, the stator on my bike (Hon, perm. mag. type) shorted which eventually caused a dead battery (no charging). But, my buddy's Yamaha (automotive style alt.) worked just fine -- and, as luck would have it, the batteries in both bikes were similar. So, when mine wouldn't run anymore we'd swap batteries and push start his Yamaha to get it going (elec. start only), which would then charge the low battery; while I'd just start mine normally and ride until the battery got low again. We did that over and over again 'till we got home -- over 1000 miles. The bad part was that my buddy felt that everone thought his bike was the bad one because we were always pushing it to start it. :haha:

BTW, concerning dead/low batteries: I think any manual will tell you to get full battery voltage (13.5 volts, ?) before you do anything else.