Left my bike at home with the woman while deployed

[FJReady]

I'm in the 'no start' club. Occasional 5-10 minute starts won't do much good for the battery and the build up of condensation and combustion by-products internal to the engine won't be so good either. If it could be ridden up at normal operating temp for 20-30 minutes that would have less detrimental effect.

I would put fresh oil and gas stabilizer in it and invest in a good battery tender (I like the Yuasa hot-shot) just as if you were tucking it in for a long winter's nap.

My $.02

And a thousand thanks to all you guys and girls who serve our great nation.

 

[wfooshee]

Running at idle is not enough to charge your battery. You would be better off disconnecting the battery and leaving it alone instead of letting it idle.

I've got to call a little BS on this. If it wasn't enough to charge your battery then eventually the bike would discharge the battery while idling and die. I suppose you could argue that it takes too long to make up for the power that is used to start the bike but the bike apparently makes more than enough power at idle.

Battery is discharging at idle. You'll see enough volts on a voltmeter, but if you hooked up an ammeter you'd see. Not enough amps coming out of the stator. Repeated starts and idles will discharge the battery. It will not make up the cranking loss just sitting at idle.

 

[meosborn]

Battery is discharging at idle.

So, you are saying that if a bike is just left at idle it will eventually die as it discharges the battery.

 

[wfooshee]

Eventually. I don't know at what rate, and it may run out of gas first but simply idling will not feed enough amps to make up for the cranking loss.

Like I said earlier, you may see enough volts at first, but you'll see a negative reading on an ammeter, meaning discharge. Hold it up around 3000 RPM and it at least evens out.

If you disconnect all the lights that would probably change things, but you don't want to forget them and go riding . . . . .

 

[Bounce]

Ask Jody to ride it while he's there.

 

[DELETE-PLEASE]

Ask Jody to ride it while he's there.

OH wow. You went there. I'm not worried about Jody this time . . . but Jody IS the reason my ex-wife is an EX-wife.
Except in that scenario, he waited till I was back home from deployment to start "going to the movies" with her.

Alexi

PS - But I made sure the bike was mine when the papers came through! She can have the dog and cat! I got my (then) suzuki C50T.

 

[Bounce]

Of course I had to go there. From one (ex) serviceman to another: it's in the regs.