Memory and Batteries.

[Bigwolf]

Nice day for a ride today!  Got my gear on, garage door up, threw a leg over and settled into the saddle.  Turned the key and tapped the start button.......nothing.  Check the kill switch,...the key switch.....tap start button again.......nothing,..hey, no lights either!   

I got out the multimeter, and probed the power connector/battery maintainer lead by the seat....4.9V.  Oh, that’s not good!  Get the charger/maintainer connected....no go!  It reads bad battery!

Seat off, battery disconnected/removed from the bike.  Tried the tender again. This time directly on the battery and still get bad battery reading, unable to charge.     Crap!  Seems like just last year that I put that battery in the bike.  Ya just can’t get good stuff anymore.

Whoops!  A quick look through my records tells me it was November 20,2014 when I installed that battery.  Time goes by so quickly anymore!  I guess it was a good battery after all.  Now to get another new battery.

[Rams]

Have a almost new battery (Valkyrie) sitting here going to waste.   Come get it and it’s yours.

Rams

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

I just got another NAPA Legend battery to replace my 8 year old battery in one of my bikes it was $ 109.00 out the door. The one NAPA Legend I took out was still good replaced for peace of mind after doing some maintenance and seen how long it had been in there. Couple cool thing I like about these battery's is that you don't have to worry about that stupid little square nut . Comes with two sets of screws one long one short depending how many accessories you need to hook up and 8 years old and still good on my last one.

[old2soon]

         Can't recall what I shelled out for it But Yuasa A G M. Should you go this route READ the directions!     RIDE SAFE.

[Bigwolf]

Thanks guys!  I was just having a laugh at myself for thinking that battery was not that old.

I am not yet certain what I will buy for it but that NAPA Legend does look interesting.  A Yuasa agm is what I had in it.

I cranked the old one up on my big charger for an hour and it is now taking charge from the tender.  If I can suck another couple of weeks out of it, I will do so.  My Valk has not been started since the Veterans Day Ride so maybe.

They have already been salt slurry drowning the roads here and I don’t like having my bike out on that stuff.  So, first of the year I will be giving my bike some overdue service.  There are some other issues that need attention.  Probably going to have the carbs off and also be looking at this belly tank option.  Maybe new belts just because of age.  A lot to think about and do.  Not much sense to have a new battery just sitting here collecting dust.

[Jess from VA]

My Yuasa's from Amazon come boxed dry with the acid on the side.  With two bikes, I always keep a new one inside in the (temp controlled) utility room.  It doesn't even start getting old until it's first filled with acid and initially charged up.

[cookiedough]

My Yuasa's from Amazon come boxed dry with the acid on the side.  With two bikes, I always keep a new one inside in the (temp controlled) utility room.  It doesn't even start getting old until it's first filled with acid and initially charged up.

Yep,  Amazon has the Yuasa's for around 72 bucks or so last time I looked, hard to beat that and like said, they come dry you fill the acid up inside and charge it up which is ideal.    Ordered 2 of them over the years and had good luck 5-6 years on each the one I have now is on my 6th year so am sure will clunk out soon all of a sudden as my other batteries have done being all of a sudden NO good.

[DDT (12)]

Jerry,

Just changed ALI's battery out last week... Thanks to suggestions on this board, and like SmokinJoe, I went with the NAPA Legend this time... Really looking forward to a nice long life outa that 'un... My last couple had been expediency purchases while on a road trip, so WalMart usually got the nod, because there is always one close-by... This time the old one died at the house, so I took the plunge... Good luck!

DDT

[Tx Bohemian]

Whoops!  A quick look through my records tells me it was November 20,2014 when I installed that battery.  Time goes by so quickly anymore!  I guess it was a good battery after all. 

I know this feeling real well!
Between the Valkyrie, Scooter, cars, 4whlr, 3 mowers, and old age I can't remember when I replaced the batteries in any of them!
And likewise when one won't start I go through the same scenario: "I just replaced it"!!
But my record keeping is not as good as yours (no matter how good my intentions are of doing better next time...).

So for the last few years I've taken a "Magic Marker" and write the date and where it was purchase on the battery itself so with a quick look I can tell how old!

This works for me.

[Bigwolf]

My Yuasa's from Amazon come boxed dry with the acid on the side.  With two bikes, I always keep a new one inside in the (temp controlled) utility room.  It doesn't even start getting old until it's first filled with acid and initially charged up.

Jess and Cookiedough,
I am certainly going to put that dry battery theory to the test!  When I get this old CB200T ready to fire up, I have a 20+ year old dry battery sitting here for it.  Theoretically it should be just fine when the acid is added.

DDT,
It is always nice when a malfunction happens at home,.....rare, but really nice!  You and I both got lucky this time.
I believe you chose well with that NAPA Legend.  You probably won’t be using the jumper function of that rugged geek for a long while now.  I tested my rugged geek on a diesel tractor a couple of weeks ago.....it impressed several of us.

So after slamming my old battery with 2 amps from my big roll around charger for 60 minutes, I again tried it on the tender and it took charge from that also.  At 10 pm last night I pulled it off the tender and found a reading of 13.7 on the battery.  About 11 pm, it showed 12.9.  Left it set without any charger/tender and checked again at noon today.  Now showing 12.7.  I won’t be making any long runs anytime soon, just short runs around town, so I am going to put this one back in for the next couple of weeks.  Just gotta remember to run it every other day or plug the tender in every couple of days.

Again, thanks for all the suggestions.

Bigwolf