Slow starting R1200GS

[Mitch2010]

Hi,
My '08 R1200GS has recently sounded sluggish when cranking the starter, even after a 30+mile trip. The bike doesnt fail to start, it just always sounds slow turning over.

I keep the bike on an optimate (connected direct to the battery) and that shows the battery as fully charged.

I called into the local dealer and they thought the Zumo660 cradle connected to the aux socket might cause a problem by fooling the optimate or drawing a current when the bike is standing still.

On their advice i'm now running the bike with the Zumo cradle disconnected, but it still sounds slow on turning over.

Any ideas? Is the battery on the way out or could it be the alternator? I've got my first European trip in a few weeks time and I don't want the worry of the bike not starting somewhere!!!

 

[Wapping]

Battery

 

[RickG]

yup, battery

 

[GSmonkey]

Not the answer people ever want, but (expensive) battery is most likely cause. If it wasn't for the optimate it'd probably be dead in the garage before you set off.

 

[Mitch2010]

Thanks for the replies.

Looks like I'll have to replace the battery as a precaution

Anyone got any reccomendations on a battery that will simply slot into the bike, or is this a case of just getting a BMW OEM battery?? I

've seen a few different types / prices on eBay.

 

[thornley]

Thanks for the replies.

Looks like I'll have to replace the battery as a precaution

Anyone got any reccomendations on a battery that will simply slot into the bike, or is this a case of just getting a BMW OEM battery?? I

've seen a few different types / prices on eBay.

Halfords do a Bosch for £59.99. Loads on e bay but easier to collect or return if you have any probs

 

[Wicker]

If bike less than 2 years old; is the battery not still covered under BMW warranty?

 

[grimo]

Hi guys,
IMHO it is better to charge your battery then get it off the optimate or other chargers of this type. There is however a need to charge your bike if you have an alarm fitted to keep the battery volts above 10v if you don`t ride regularly or the battery will suffer damage.

I say this because I fell victim to the "optimate syndrome" on a previous bike.

My understanding is, when the battery has received a full charge the optimate then monitors the battery and supplies a small current on whats called a float charge, the voltage is maintained at 13.65v or there abouts.

This over time will cause the battery capacity to fall from say 14Ah to 12Ah ( Amp Hour, amount of current supplied for 1 hour ) and so on as time progresses. These batteries are not really designed to be kept on float they are designed to delivery a large current over relatively short periods enough to start your bike several times.

The optimate measures the voltage drop on the battery it does not measure the capacity hence it will always tell you that the battery is full and sound!
My advice would be to use the optimate type charges because they deliver the correct amount of current needed to charge bike batteries, it is always better to charge your battery with smaller rather than larger currents.

If you have an alarm fitted then I would suggest that you monitor the battery voltage on a regular basis. This can be done with a DC volt meter available at Argos, or other motor factors. A 12v bike or car battery is considered to be flat at 12v, a full battery will give you a reading of 12.6v and above after the battery has settled ( about 1 hour after charging ). If you let the voltage drop to 10v or below then you will most probably cause damage to the battery cell / cells.

The ideal thing would be to measure the actual current draw on the bike with the ignition turned off with no other equipment connected other than your alarm.
For example,
If you had a battery with a capacity of 1 Ah ( 1000ma milliamperes ) and your alarm had a current draw of 100ma then the battery will last 10 hours. Or 50ma then it will last 20hrs.
If you have not got an alarm and you do not ride regularly the I would monitor the volts and charge if the volts were around 12.1v.
As i do not have an alarm fitted I cannot provide results of a current draw and then it would be specific to my bike.
A full battery unused will last a long time ( months ) before becoming flat.

Regards.

Grimo

 

[skywalker]

Re Grimo's last post, first sensible statement I've seen on here for ages - now stand back and watch the "I leave mine on all the tme blah blah blah with no problems" brigade response to this.

 

[GSmonkey]

I leave mine on all the time with no problems. Only been using the optimate for 11years, so I suppose it's early days.