Low battery?

[gsmilleduecento]

Tonight my 1200 didn't start.
Push the ferkin button and just a ferking noise . Sort of "Toc" .
Porca di quella troia. My old scrappy Aprilia never let me down.

Any suggestion?

 

[themadprofessor]

Hmm, funny you should say that.

My 1200GS did exactly the same thing........

I ride to work every day (10 miles). On Wednesday evening at five o'clock I left work went to the bike and it did the same thing as yours. I got the bus home, fetched my son in the car and we jumped it with one of those "battery in a lunchbox" things you can buy. I got it home, charged it all night and went to the dealer yesterday. Left it with them all day. When I went to pick it up they said the battery was fecked. Only holding 40% charge according to the BMW tester they had.

The dealer replaced the battery today under guarantee!!!

I noticed that the one that failed had a translucent case, whilst the replacement is a Yuasa in a normal black case. Both are standard sealed Lead Acid type.

Chris

 

[gsmilleduecento]

Incredible, exactely the same as I do. Riding every day to work, around 10 miles.
Sorry but wht's the "battery in a lunchbox"?

 

[robp]

I had exactly the same problem. My ride to work is 10 miles too. Bike started ok at work, but after stopping half way home for petrol, wouldn't start. Just a click from the solenoid. Luckily there was a kind 1150GS owner there in his car and we jumpstarted it from his car battery. Dealer changed the battery (under warranty). Bike was 5 months old at the time. Still sometimes sounds like it is turning over slowly even now, but haven't had any more problems with it not starting yet.
I saw on the Yamaha FJR 1300 website that the battery on that is twice the capacity of the 12GS one - wish they would fit a bigger battery to the GS and take the slight weight penalty - better than 199kg to push around when it won't start!

 

[PAL]

I to am joining the unreliable club.Mine failed to start yesterday,charged with optimate all day and night but failed to start today.This has happened 5 times in since christmas,getting a little p'd off now.

 

[piebaps]

You aint alone guys.

 

[NeilG]

Start a new thread to see who's got through most batteries under warranty?

I'm now on 3rd after 10,000m and 18 months..............

 

[themadprofessor]

Battery in a lunch box is this http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product.asp?p=010310400&r=2058&g=107

I thought it was quite a good description.......

Chris

PS - I wonder whether it is the Mareg batteries that are going bad?

I can only remember that my bad battery had a translucent case sides. Was this a Mareg or a different brand.

It was replaced by a Yuasa.

 

[gsmilleduecento]

I started mine with jump leads. I am going to BMW on Monday. Let you know.

 

[Searanger]

Mine's dead today after 10 days in the garage - Is this acceptable after 11 months ?(alarm disabled)

 

[gsmilleduecento]

I went to BMW and they confirmed that the battery was low. ( easy)
They said somethng like:
.. You know, 10 mile is not enough to recharge the battery... you should take a detour and make at least 15 miles...you know, with all the lights on, the ABS. Did you have the heated grips on? that's it... was it a cold day?...
You should use a battery charger, a BMW one, 65 quids.

Now, I've never seen in the manual that you should ride more than ten mile to recharge the battery every time you start the engine. I never read that I shouldn't use the heated grips (which I didn't want but guaranteed immediate delivery). If the servo brakes consume too much power they should give a free battery charger every ABS. Finally I haven't got a power plug in the garage.
They spent all this effort to remove 30 Kilos but I would have prefered 1 more kilo and a better battery.

 

[NeverRodeBefore]

No power...

I had the same prob, so I removed the battery and just used an ordfinary car charger on it... seemed to charge it ok.

I suppose a smart charger will stop when the battery is full, but I left mine on charge and just checked it with a multimeter every now and then.

I haven't ridden it for a couple of weeks but, I hope it'll be ok as it's been on my solar charger since last weekend.

I bought a pair of solar chargers (one for the Landrover) and one for the Ginetta. AS the Ginnie lives in a garage, I cut a hole big enough to allow the cells to be in daylight, and then bolted a sheet of perspex over the hole with a seam of silicon to keep the water out.

A couple of years on and the Ginetta's battery is always on top form despite not getting to stretch it's legs too often, especially this time of year.

The bod's at BM couldn't tell me if that would charge the battery when clipped direct to the terminals... well soon find out!

 

[Chalkie]

My second hand GS 1150 gave me loads of hassle with a duff battery and an alarm and an optimate which didn't seem very effective
Got a new battery, which seemd to work for all of a month
might resort to removing the alarm which I hate anyway, to many beeps and just makes life complicated.
Heres hoping

 

[Mouse]

See other thread about Hawker batteries

 

[DodgyGeeSer]

Same gig - 10 mile journey to work, heated grips, ABS, and not enough weekend jaunts recently to charge the battery properly. Has died on me a couple of times.. I've got into the habit of watching for the signs of a low battery (dull sluggishness when starting the engine, running lights and cockpit lights dim when hitting the ignition switch).

When it looks like it's running low, I hook it up to the trickle charger for a few hours. Sorts it out fine.

Of course, taking it out at the weekend and thrashing it it the best and most enjoyable way of making sure the battery's up to the job during the week.

 

[sjwb]

I hadn't riden mine (1200) for 3 weeks; so Saturday morning I put the Optimate on it for a couple of hours. PERFECT, no problem whatsoever.
Makes you wonder doesn't it?