08 GSA wont start...

[Paul Wakefield]

mate, modern BMW's eat batteries for breakfast.. Yours is clearly from the old proper BM era...

1200 boxers need a battery evry year, max every 2... Odyssey batteries are better, I ve gone through my second winter on mine and looks good for summer, but no more...

Glad the prob is sorted, do change the OE batt though before winter as it will go...

Sorry - I should have been clearer. It is not all the same bike. It includes R1100RS (3 years), R1150GS (4 1/2 years), R1200GS (only 1 year - on orders from SWMBO), R1200RT (3 years) and R1200GSA (11 months so far). No battery probs.

(I do hope I'm not going to regret that).

 

[NorthernBoy]

In 12 years I have never had a problem with a BM battery (Famous last words) and they live outside and never go near a charger.

Do those who have had problems with batteries have alarms? Just wondered.

I had problems with an alarm, and without. With, I got at very best a week of non-use before the battery was dead enough to need replacing.

 

[theop]

What are the signs then of a battery thats about to fail? Mine's the original OEM Exide battery and is a year old. I'm tempted to just buy an Odessey having heard all the bad stuff but mine still turns over OK, gets plugged into an Optimate all the time and has another year of warranty. Measuring the voltage across the battery when not on the Optimate gives me 13.08 volts. I'm off to France in a few weeks time and would replace the battery if I thought it was on the way out but how to tell? And how do I persuade a BMW dealer to replace a battery before it fails, but knowing it's about to?

Signs are initially that the engine turns a little slower until eventually on a cold winter day it won't be able to turn.. One can leave the bike on Opti chargers and it makes for a short term solution even in winter, but (in my specific case) the continued use of heated grips and town riding (i.e not enough revs and time to charge), followed by repeated periods of not using the bike due to traveling always guarantees a finished battery.

My definition of a dead battery is one that in temps below 5C won't be able to keep enough charge to turn the engine on the way home from work.

Odyssey is better (not sure this is because I bought a higher Ah capacity though) and it went through 2 winters of use without help from opti and only during last Feb snows needed a bit of a push.

For your trip to France, I d think you ll have no issues as a) its warm , b) those probs don't develop suddenly and c) you ll be riding everyday keeping it charged