Battery finely died

Saturday I went to a club meeting around ten miles from home. I came out after the meeting and the Wing started fine. Around five miles from the meeting I was sitting at a red light and it felt like it was misfiring or something. I looked at the dash and the gauges were going goofy and it was wanting to stall out. If I gave it a little gas it would run ok. So we stopped at a local shop and I shut it off. I thought I would try to hook it up to a jumper battery and see if that would help to see if it was an electric problem. When I came out and hooked up the jumper battery and hit the starter button all it did was go click click click. So I went to Batteries Plus and paid $82.50 out the door for a 15 amp battery. The OEM battery was 12 amp and I figured bigger was better. Went back to the shpo and put it in and it started right up. This was the first time I have had a battery die while I was riding. Usually they go out when it is parked.

Then I go out to get on it this morning and the back tire is low, so I put air in it and go to breakfast. I come out of the restaurant and it's low again. I find a nail in it so I call the dealer and ask if they have a tire in stock. They had a Hoop for $89 and I bye it, take it to my local shop, pull the tire off , change the tire put it on the Wing. Then look at the tire and realize I mounted it the wrong way, pull it all off again and put it back on right way. After having everyone laugh at me I ask the shop owner how much I owe him for the use of his shop and equipment. He tells me I did all the work so I owed him nothing. It sure is nice to have a good shop close to you when you need one. The battery was four years old so that was pretty good but the tire only had around 3,060 miles and was almost down to the ware marks. To think some people think they will save money by riding a bike, but the fun is worth it. I apologize for being so long winded but I thought I would pass this info on.

Of all the things to go wrong I dread a dead battery as there isn't anything you can do to even limp home.

Was there any signs that the battery was getting weaker? Did the lights dim on tick over or anything like that?

My Silverwings battery is only 2 years old, but my Chinese scoot is a 2008 and the original battery just died like 2 months ago. I had no running problems though - stopped in Chickfila for a biscuit and came out and got no power to anything when I turned the key. Lucky there was a walmart within walking distance so I took the chance and bought a battery and screw driver to replace it and was back on the road. They always seem to fail suddenly on dark rainy mornings or nights LOL...

Thanks just what I needed to hear

My battery is coming up to 3 years old, it behaves as it should but I'm wondering if I should replace it before I get stuck on that dark rainy day...

I would, the guy at WOW Motorcycles said they are like car batteries and after 3 or 4 years you are pushing your luck. I am going to start replacing them every 3 years now. Twice in cars over the years batteries went bad the same way. Driving along, turn car off and come back, click click click....

I have a six year old battery on my car, the Wing's battery is over three years old!

I use a battery tender, (on both), so hopefully it will do what it advertises and extends battery life!

Probably my number 2 fear, a flat battery. Number 1 fear - flat tyre.

I now have a number 3 fear, failed wheel bearings LOL

acworthpatrick wrote:

I now have a number 3 fear, failed wheel bearings LOL

That one I learned from my Burgering days!!!! Burgman 400's, (certainly up to 2007) had a problem with the bearing seals, as well as headlamps blowing and in my case speedo sensors failing!!! I changed the front bearing every 16k miles as 2 friends had them go about 17-18 k miles.

RArch wrote:

Was there any signs that the battery was getting weaker? Did the lights dim on tick over or anything like that?

Like I said in my post. I was sitting at a red light and it felt like it was misfiring or something. I looked at the dash and the gauges were going goofy and it was wanting to stall out. If I gave it a little gas it would run ok.
I did notice a few weeks ago I put a Givi top box on and when I was checking the wiring with a volt meter it was only reading 12 volts. I thought it should be reading over 12 volts but I figured it was just because I had been playing around with the power on as it started just fine. I now know I was wrong and should have replaced it then.
Also I should correct my self, in my first post I said I put a 15 amp battery in I should have said 14 amp. At 20 till 1:00 AM my mind was not working up to par.

What is your idle speed set at, I keep mine around 1500rpms or the voltage at idle can get low enough it would stumble and act crazy without battery voltage to supplement. Not sure, but I would think to low an idle could possibly reduce battery life as well.

acworthpatrick, my idle speed is set at around 1,400 rpms. When it was acting up I had to give it some gas to keep it running so I cant say what the idle speed was as I would not let it idle for fear of stalling. I think four years is a good life span for a battery.

Thanks for the info, I will be out with the multimeter in the morning.

Some sort of battery monitor might be a good idea...