Didn't start - initially

[TheJoker]

Thought this might spare someone some "oh-noooo"-moments.

Coming back from my Xmas holidays I wanted to take Der Fraulein out for a spin, I gladly kitted up and pulled her out of the garage to press the starter button only to hear a click-click.
Ouch, I thought.
I pressed again, and another click-click. This click-click doesn't sound like most "drained battery clicks", but it sounds like a solenoid clicking and releasing, hard... When usually a drained battery results in a click-while-holding-key/button-till-you-release-click.
This one was a CLICK!-CLICK!-while-still-holding-the-starter-button.

Naaworries, I thought and got the bike infront of the car, connected the jump-starter-cables up, and happily to proceed to press the starter, to again hear the distressed CLICK!-CLICK!
Thoughts at this point start swerwing towards pulling the BMW assistance card out...
I decided to start the car and have it idle (always recommended)... to proceed to press the starter again... CLICK!-CLICK!!


A deep breath later, I checked the jump-leads that they had proper contact, I waited about 1 minute (car still idling)... and proceeded to the start-button.... And, just like absolutely nothing had happened, she purred into life...

Lessons learnt:
- Start the car (even if it's a "tiny bike").
- Check that the leads get proper contact (no really )
- Let her charge a bit
- Thumping around 2 cyl a ca 600cc each takes a bit of ooomph to get going.
- Don't panic.

I then went for a 70mile ride and she's been fine since. For reference she was unused and alarmed for about 1 week (a bit too short to discharge the battery IMO).

Hope this helps someone save a few pearls of sweat

 

[Mouse]

Bummer!

I've left my bike for 7 days or so a couple of times and it's always started perfectly ...

I remember some talk (perhaps on AdvRider) about a speculated electrical fault that caused the battery to discharge quickly. Something not going into standby mode correctly perhaps.

If you have a multimeter, wanna measure the current the bike draws when turned off? Might be informative.

 

[TheJoker]

If you have a multimeter, wanna measure the current the bike draws when turned off? Might be informative.

Yeah, I'm a bit curious why it's been drained too. I do have a multimeter, but where should I measure?

If memory serves, I stopped the bike outside the garage to start it up and ride it in again - one start without any recharge. Another thing that I suspect is that there might be some salt-grime-something that conducts electrickery just a bit to drain the battery slowly.... Who knows, maybe I should have washed her before I went away...?!

 

[Emoto]

Joker,

Consider yourself lucky. Back in the 80s when I made my living as a bike mechanic, we would occasionally have bikes towed in that were dead. Their expensive little electronic brains were fried. In many cases the cause was jump starting the bike from a car with the car engine running. Way too much juice for a bike's system to handle. Leave the car engine off next time. It may take a couple of extra minutes for enough power to work it's way into your bike battery, but it is far safer.

 

[Mouse]

It does explicitly say in the 1200 owner's manual that you can jump start the bike from another vehicle. I'm not sure why the alternator voltage from a car would be any higher than that from a bike.

Joker - I haven't tried this myself yet, but I'm thinking along the following lines: Disconnect battery negative terminal and connect an ammeter in line. Do this with ignition off, obviously. Make sure the ammeter can take a few amps, I've no idea how much current the bike will draw if you turn on the ignition. At least 2 amps I'd think, and if you touch the starter or the brakes you'll probably blow the fuse in your meter.

I'd then turn on the ignition to allow the bike to "sort itself out", then turn it off again and watch how much current is flowing. If you arm the alarm remember that the indicators probably take 4 amps total and the beeper might take an amp or so. Remember the bike leaves the aux circuit (and possibly other things) powered for a few minutes after ignition off so you may have to wait a while to get an accurate reading of "standby current".

Probably best to use a decent multimeter for this experiment, I'd guess one that can handle 10A DC minimum. I'll try and borrow a Fluke from work and report back

 

[Mouse]

Oh yeah and remember if you disconnect the battery, when it's refitted you need to go through the TPS setup procedure in the manual - to summarise:

Reconnect battery.

Turn on ignition.

Open throttle fully, twice.

 

[Big Lee]

Sounds like a good reason to buy an optimate or the like

 

[TheJoker]

Sounds like a good reason to buy an optimate or the like

Naah, seems to me that next time I go away, I'll go on the bike...

Mouse, sounds like good ideas to me, but a tad too complicated for now... Maybe if it happens again!

Emoto, never heard about / had any problems using running engine when jump-starting (car or bike)...