Help, flat battery!

shedracer

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Friends travelled over from Germany yesterday, managed to get all the way until they got within 15 miles to my place. Anyway here's the problem, my friend is riding a brand new GS650 (old style 650) and she noticed that her ABS light was blinking, so pulled over to investigate. She turned the engine off, then after having a look around the bike, went to start it and found it had a flat battery!

She has Abs on it and had been using the heated grip, a Gerbing heated jacket and lights on with additional PIAA 35w spot lights. Its a brand new bike and this is the first time out on it with all the electrical kit going at the same time, also by the time they had reached Oxfordshire, it was dark, so she had also been using the full beam.

Question is, is all this electrical equipment running at the same time while riding, just too much for the bikes charging system, or do you think their is a problem, ie duff battery.

Anyway we managed to jump start it and get the bike to my place. The battery is currently on charge, so hopefully it will be OK for the rest of the weekend and the return trip to Germany. :(

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated. :bow
 
The maximum alternator output is 400W.However,I don't know what RPM is needed for the full 400W but is probably much higher than the average revs over normal mixed riding,so maybe 250-300W would be a better 'real world' figure.If you add up the wattage of all the accessories you'll get some idea if the charging system can cope.
Ideally connect a voltmeter across the battery and switch on all the accessories and see if the alternator can manage and at what revs.
My feeling is that it might be OK on a motorway run but probably can't cope at lower revs., eg. around town.
Tony
 
battery

shedracer...

I aggree with tallTony on this. I think he is spot on..

Charge the battery and see how it goes without all the bits running.

Tony Allen:thumb2
 
Cheers guys for your info,:clap friend has now gone back to Germany, so can't check. But once we got her bike to our place, charged it over night, she didn't use the Aux lights or heated vest and didn't have any further problems. She may get a Hawker battery and fit a volt metre, at least this will give her a good indication of how her battery is, so she can use the accessories and know if she needs to switch them of if the battery is getting low. What do you think, good idea?
 
Have a look at Westco 12V14L-B it is a straight swap for the OEM one and costs about the same as the OEM one too.
 


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