GS battery charging over winter?

beaver

beaver

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We are not there yet, but as soon as the salt gets put down, my time on the roads will be cut back until next year... I've done too many years on bikes over winter and prefer the look of paint finish to rust... so will be taking the soft option ;)

Not sure of the battery type fitted to our bikes, but was thinking of the Optimate 1 to keep it charged up when in the garage.. I have a direct feed to the battery through an auxiliary lighter socket so don't have to use the Can-Bus one on the bike...

any better ones on offer.. Optimate ones are about £36 on e-bay....
 
Optimate 1? Oh, it's a new version, not the original Optimate I bought in the 1990s.

Unless you have an alarm draining the power you may not need anything. Current batteries fitted to the bikes are AGMs made by Exide. They do not discharge like wet batteries.

I usually use my bike during winter but I had an enforced lay off due to a knee injury in one year. The Hawker Odyssey battery fitted to my then bike stayed charged for 4 months without any attention.
 
If you’re laying the bike up for the winter, take the battery off or pop off the +ve lead.
Give it a charge then tape up the terminals and store it somewhere warm and dry.
Top up the charge before you put it back on the bike in the spring.

If your garage is protected from frost, that will do if you don’t want it in the house.
You don’t need a trickle charger unless you’ve got something like an alarm on it.
 
I haven't had great success with batteries and leaving bikes on charge over winter. Not sure if it's that good for the batteries - have had quite a few fail, albeit most of them were standard BMW batteries (Yuasa I think).
I now tend to leave them for a few weeks and then charge, rinse and repeat. Seem to last a bit longer that way, for me at least.
 
May be.. not saying I'll not use the bike, just not as much... if they hold charge okay, maybe just leave it?.. it's been left 2 weeks before with the alarm on and started fine.. not sure it would last 2 months.. but I can unplug the alarm, so not a problem...
I know from the cars, you can't win.. I take my TVR off the road about this time of year and its on the Optimate.. a number of times I'm sure its killed the battery over winter?
 
Optimate 4 and just top it up every month for 24 hours then unplug again, believe it or not batteries do not like to be at 100% all the time, yes it is useful to be a 100% for starting the bike, but when winterized it is good to let the battery drop down a little and be topped up again, batteries that drop to about 40% and get toppped up for another month will live longer than a battery on a tender all winter long, get ready for the leave it plugged in brigade to arrive, however, as one op stated, fully charged and off the bike is by far the best, if you do not need the alarm.
 
I would go with this. If you might use the bike then just take the lead off but leave the battery in. Simple 2 mins reconnect and your running again.

Other options are a ctek, I have never had any luck with an optimate and in fact blame them for a few early battery deaths. Never had a battery die using my ctek though.
AberdeenAngus said:
If you’re laying the bike up for the winter, take the battery off or pop off the +ve lead.
Give it a charge then tape up the terminals and store it somewhere warm and dry.
Top up the charge before you put it back on the bike in the spring.

If your garage is protected from frost, that will do if you don’t want it in the house.
You don’t need a trickle charger unless you’ve got something like an alarm on it.
Click to expand...

Sent from my SM-T713 using Tapatalk
 
During the winter I’ve allways used an optimate for 24 hours every two weeks.... including a Harley which is tough on batteries ..this has always worked for me.
 
twizzle said:
During the winter I’ve allways used an optimate for 24 hours every two weeks.... including a Harley which is tough on batteries ..this has always worked for me.
Click to expand...

+1 with Twizzle Harley alarm was a pesky pain in the rear, the GS now has no alarm.
 
beaver said:
We are not there yet, but as soon as the salt gets put down, my time on the roads will be cut back until next year... I've done too many years on bikes over winter and prefer the look of paint finish to rust... so will be taking the soft option ;)

Not sure of the battery type fitted to our bikes, but was thinking of the Optimate 1 to keep it charged up when in the garage.. I have a direct feed to the battery through an auxiliary lighter socket so don't have to use the Can-Bus one on the bike...

any better ones on offer.. Optimate ones are about £36 on e-bay....
Click to expand...

Slather it in ACF50, grow a set, and ride it all year round :D problem solved :nod
 
Smogbob said:
Optimate 4 and just top it up every month for 24 hours then unplug again, believe it or not batteries do not like to be at 100% all the time, yes it is useful to be a 100% for starting the bike, but when winterized it is good to let the battery drop down a little and be topped up again, batteries that drop to about 40% and get toppped up for another month will live longer than a battery on a tender all winter long, get ready for the leave it plugged in brigade to arrive...
Click to expand...

And here is one of them! Not quite Bob. The charge and then disconnect idea definitely worked when we had standard battery chargers and overcharging boiled the electrolyte, but the market has changed. Deep discharges also shorten battery life - you'll get more charge/discharge cycles by only going down to 80% full than 60%, even fewer going to 40%. Once discharged, lead acid and AGM batteries should be recharged straight away as sitting discharged hurts them. A proper smart charger (like the Ctek and some others) will take care of the battery by doing cleverer things than merely keeping it floating at full. Sharing one between a couple of bikes will be ok as long as they are swapped regularly. I have a fair few quids worth of domestic battery bank in my boat and looking after them properly extends their life greatly - they're sat right now being cuddled by a clever Victron smart charger. Similarly, the GS and the VFR are both on 5a Ctek chargers in motorcycle mode, a newer AGM capable one for the GS. Your mileage may vary! :)
 
Sea Dog said:
And here is one of them! Not quite Bob. The charge and then disconnect idea definitely worked when we had standard battery chargers and overcharging boiled the electrolyte, but the market has changed. Deep discharges also shorten battery life - you'll get more charge/discharge cycles by only going down to 80% full than 60%, even fewer going to 40%. Once discharged, lead acid and AGM batteries should be recharged straight away as sitting discharged hurts them. A proper smart charger (like the Ctek and some others) will take care of the battery by doing cleverer things than merely keeping it floating at full. Sharing one between a couple of bikes will be ok as long as they are swapped regularly. I have a fair few quids worth of domestic battery bank in my boat and looking after them properly extends their life greatly - they're sat right now being cuddled by a clever Victron smart charger. Similarly, the GS and the VFR are both on 5a Ctek chargers in motorcycle mode, a newer AGM capable one for the GS. Your mileage may vary! :)
Click to expand...

I use the 40 to 80 rule on every battery phone laptop Ebike GS and all seems a way lot better, but that is my choice....;)
 
Smogbob said:
I use the 40 to 80 rule on every battery phone laptop Ebike GS and all seems a way lot better, but that is my choice....;)
Click to expand...

Lithium batteries in laptops, ebikes, and lots else, do not fit into the above Bob. You can discharge those much more without I'll effect and are, in general, best stored at about 80%.

Motorcycle and car batteries tend to have a short sharp discharge and be back to 100% very quickly in normal use.
 
Sea Dog said:
Lithium batteries in laptops, ebikes, and lots else, do not fit into the above Bob. You can discharge those much more without I'll effect and are, in general, best stored at about 80%.

Motorcycle and car batteries tend to have a short sharp discharge and be back to 100% very quickly in normal use.
Click to expand...

So back to the drawing board.........;)
 
C-Tec on the car... the Optimate did go south about 5 years ago... I guess I'll just switch between the car and bike and let both alarms pull them down a bit... swap ever month ... job done :)
 
I have a trickle charger for my K1200RS. Anyone know if I can use it on the GS1200 LC? Same socket type. Or will the canbus system make it unuseable? Like Smogbob, on the K12 I just popped it on overnight once-a-month over winter... Only replaced the battery twice in 19 years!
normal_charger.jpg
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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