Battery weirdness

[MartinS]

I haven't been on here in months, been totally slacking as son was born late last year. Sorry to come back with a question but hoping someone will take pity on me.

2014 GS LC has been laid up for months. Stupidly, I forgot to put it on a trickle charge and by the time I remembered, I figured the battery would have been toast regardless.

Today, I had a moment to go and have a look at the "damage". I turned the ignition, expecting nothing whatsoever to happen, yet to my surprise, on she goes. I didn't try to start it as it was a bit late at night, but the voltage was showing as 11.9. Strikes me as very odd, given the length of time she's been stood....I figured it would be entirely dead.

I know better than to do this to a bike, particularly a new one, but it's just been mental family wise, first baby and all that.

I suppose my question is, is the 11.9V reading likely to be accurate? Should I trust that the battery is OK or replace it as a matter of course? I'm hoping to ride it when the weather clears up and dont want to get stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Any opinions on this?

 

[baku_mackem]

I bought a 2013 GS LC over a year ago and as I work away for very extended periods of time I had similar concerns. My bike doesn't have an alarm so in theory there is nothing to drain the power once switched off, so following some research I decided the way forward was to clean/dry it and just park it up (without an Opti or removing the battery).

Came back to it several months later expecting the worst, and it fired up first time

It wouldn't hurt to put an Opti on, but if you also have no alarm on your bike (or anything else to drain power once turned off) then you should be fine.

 

[Nutty]

All this talk of Optimates and trickle charging, when in reality, the bike can sit for months and will fire up first time round.

 

[Greg Masters]

All this talk of Optimates and trickle charging, when in reality, the bike can sit for months and might fire up first time round.

Fixed

Whereas with an Optimate the bike can sit for years and will fire up first time round

 

[Nutty]

Fixed

Whereas with an Optimate the bike can sit for years and will fire up first time round

That's true, but on a new bike with a new battery, unless I was leaving it for over 6 months, I wouldn't bother with one.

 

[Blackal]

All this talk of Optimates and trickle charging, when in reality, the bike can sit for months and will fire up first time round.

A completely worthless piece of advice.

Just because you have owned one bike which behaved like that - it isn't grounds for anyone expecting similar................

(the first time you find out your battery is flat - could be when you find it's knackered because it's sat below freezing point with no charge.......... Ka-ching! another £120 for a BMW battery!)

Al

 

[Nutty]

A completely worthless piece of advice.

Just because you have owned one bike which behaved like that - it isn't grounds for anyone expecting similar................

(the first time you find out your battery is flat - could be when you find it's knackered because it's sat below freezing point with no charge.......... Ka-ching! another £120 for a BMW battery!)

Al

One bike?

I've never used an Optimate on over 15 bikes. Some of my bikes have sat for months without being used, not on trickle charge, and have been fine.

 

[JJH]

I'm not a fan of long term battery chargers no matter how smart. The best way to keep a battery in tip top condition is to use the bike regularly. If the bike is not going to be used disconnect the battery and if possible bring it in doors. JJH

 

[pistole]

I think the longest mine has gone "unstarted" has been about a month.

no drama , she just starts.

I have never ever used a battery tender before either.

 

[Greg Masters]

If you've got an Optimate or similar intelligent charger, why wouldn't you use it?

Laziness?

 

[MartinS]

Polar opposite views always make for the best discussions.

What I used to do on my FZ was leave it on a trickle charger (just a halfords jobby but "intelligent") one week, then remove it the next, alternating like that over periods of non use. I could see from the display on the charger that it wasn't full each time I connected it. So on that bike, there was definitely some loss of charge. It seemed to work.

I haven't started the GS yet, but will do later today if the weather holds and I'll update this thread on how eager it was to start.

 

[JJH]

We are waiting....JJH

 

[Fanum]

If you've got an Optimate or similar intelligent charger, why wouldn't you use it?

Laziness?

...Because the use of a charger like that DISGUISES the real state of the battery.

So yes, it WILL start, once, at home, immediately after you disconnect the charger, but then when you park up at work and come back hours later, it may well NOT start, because the battery is fubared.

I like to know the condition of my battery....yes, I'll top it up if I need to (My bike wasn't used for three months from last September 'cos I was working up to 18 hours a day, so after a few weeks, I stuck my intelligent charger on it) but using it as a matter of course, just if the bike might be used from weekend to another? All you're doing is lining yourself up for being stranded somewhere with a dead battery suddenly revealing itself.

 

[Greg Masters]

...Because the use of a charger like that DISGUISES the real state of the battery.

So yes, it WILL start, once, at home, immediately after you disconnect the charger, but then when you park up at work and come back hours later, it may well NOT start, because the battery is fubared.

I know that's what you believe (you've posted it before) but it's rather a self-fulfilling rationale, don't you think?

We know that lead acid batteries deteriorate when not 100% charged; you leave them unloved and untendered; they fail; you discover that in your garage/shed/drive when your bike won't start.

But that rather ignores that tendered batteries last years longer than untendered batteries. My fully Optimated OE battery was nearly 10 years old before I changed it.

 

[JJH]

I know that's what you believe (you've posted it before) but it's rather a self-fulfilling rationale, don't you think?

We know that lead acid batteries deteriorate when not 100% charged; you leave them unloved and untendered; they fail; you discover that in your garage/shed/drive when your bike won't start.

But that rather ignores that tendered batteries last years longer than untendered batteries. My fully Optimated OE battery was nearly 10 years old before I changed it.

I'm feeling left out as a battery tender disliker JJH

 

[Fanum]

I know that's what you believe (you've posted it before) but it's rather a self-fulfilling rationale, don't you think?

We know that lead acid batteries deteriorate when not 100% charged; you leave them unloved and untendered; they fail; you discover that in your garage/shed/drive when your bike won't start.

But that rather ignores that tendered batteries last years longer than untendered batteries. My fully Optimated OE battery was nearly 10 years old before I changed it.

So did mine (OEM GSA gel battery), which never once had a charger put on it .

I think you are right, but ONLY because of the number of batteries in the 'tendered' group that otherwise would have been damaged through being completely flattened.

Once you've taken those out of the equation, the biggest negative that remains is the very strong possibility that eventually, when a battery is naturally nearly dead, the rider will be left stranded because that was disguised by the use of the charger.

I'm not against the use of chargers per se.....Mine is actually plugged in right now outside, because the bike is sorned right now.

In a few weeks though, the charger will be off and won't be reconnected at all until the bike is laid up again for some reason.

 

[MartinS]

All was fine. Stopped a few times along the way, no issues and started promptly each time.

 

[Ozz]

Left mine in the garage for 7 weeks while away in Africa - came back and she started first time. No Optimate or similar used.

 

[Fluffy Bridges]

Battery wierdness

Ah. That's cos you went to Africa where its warm. Had you gone to Norway where it's cold it wouldn't have started.

F.

 

[Engineer]

A completely worthless piece of advice.

Just because you have owned one bike which behaved like that - it isn't grounds for anyone expecting similar................

(the first time you find out your battery is flat - could be when you find it's knackered because it's sat below freezing point with no charge.......... Ka-ching! another £120 for a BMW battery!)

Al

I am on my 4th 1200GS since 2005 and have never needed a battery charger, sometimes I think that this obsession with charging and the fitting of other makes of batteries is just that, an obsession, it is rarely necessary.