Ah ha moment about batteries

[ihavethespirit]

Planned a great ride with several friends for Saturday. Went out to the bike Friday nite to start it ( leave it on a trickle all the time) just to make sure everything is ok and it cranked a long time to start. I shrugged that off as maybe it was cold or hand not been started in a week and went to bed. Came out fully dressed Sat am to a completely dead battery. No time to get a new one with the planned events so the wife and I caged it. Got a new battery saturday night and charged it up and my Spirit wound quickly and it fired right up- very fast. Then it dawned on me- Ah Ha moment ! The last time I bought a new battery ( 5 years ago) I remembered thinking it was nice to crank and start so fast. This time the new battery caused it to crank and start fast - I saw the pattern- BE AWARE! if you have a couple of year or older battery and cranking takes longer and longer - Brother or Sister, you probably need a new battery - Don't make excuses as to why cranking isn't starting the bike right up. It is probably the battery. And, as long as I have your attention, if you have a Shadow Spirit 1100 take off your seat and look just forward of the air cleaner- you will see a wide black rubber condom looking cover - slide the connectors that are in there out where you can see them and check them for being burned up and crispy. It is a problem with the VT1100's.

[xrayr]

I had that connector problem on my old 1999 VT1100C3. Cleaned it really well a few times and then I sold the bike......

[kacealraid]

It's always nice to have friendly reminders like this. Plus I'd rather be a battery than something being wrong with the motor haha

[hunnus2000]

100% agree with you here!

Batteries are one of those items on a bike that people (myself included) take for granted. Batteries are also unpredictable as you can get one to last 5 years or just 1 year. I rode with a guy earlier this year that needed a jump after the bike sat overnight and swore it was electrical because the battery was only a year old. I convinced him to get another battery and he's been fine ever since.

[Steve-O]

Keep batteries fully charged all the time for longer life. I keep mine on Battery Tenders most all of the time.

That said, I am not a fan of dead batteries. I change mine out every 5 years whether they are dead or not.....

[Espiritus]

Yep, I have been there and done that. . .recently. Since my bike was on a battery tender when not in it's frequent use, I KNEW it COULDN'T be the battery. . .after all, the battery tender showed a GREEN light. . .but the battery would not work under the heavy load of the starter. The second I hit the start, EVERYTHING died. . .then after a moment or two, the lights came back on and it reset.

Did I think, "battery?" No. See paragraph above. I started seriously trouble-shooting. . .(1) is my kickstand stop switch relay broke; (2) is my neutral light stop relay broke; are the connectors under the tank all cleaned and working; you get the drift. Ohm and voltmeter abounded. . .

Second day, called my "support" mechanic. Everyone, especially we older women, should have a support mechanic who for a six pack of their favorite drink (soda or beer, their choice) will discuss the problems. He told me to bring the battery over and he'd check it. . .didn't want to hear me talk about how it could NOT be the problem. . .just bring it over.

It had a dead cell. Battery tenders will show a green light after "charging" overnight, but the cell is dead. My friend reminded me, "you ALWAYS rule out the easy stuff first. " He tried so hard to not tease me.

It was a learning experience. I have opened the maintenance manual to virgin pages, read about things that I knew nothing about, so it was worth it.

Sorry for the long post. I tend to get wordy, especially when I am warning folks not to rely on the battery tender. . .

By the way, it was the LOAD discharge that the battery couldn't handle. The manual talks about how to check this.