Hey All,
It's a long weekend up here in Canada and I had plans to head down to PA to ride all weekend.
After riding for a bunch of hours I stopped for gas in Buffalo. Bike wouldn't start after that. Seemed to be the battery was dead. So, I got a boost had headed back to Toronto to check everything out. Bike seemed fine.
THe next morning she started right up. I figured a connection was just loose and headed back on my trip. Two hours in, while riding, the bike died again. This time it went totally dead, nothing on the display and wouldn't start. I got another boost. Started right up. Lead me to think the battery was funny or perhaps the alternator was messing up since the battery held the charge overnight.
Rode back to a bike shop near me. They ran some quick tests and couldn't find anything wrong at all. And couldn't replicate the problem.
Since it happend two days in a row, I didn't want to chance it again. Let the bike there for them to go through all connections and figure out what's wrong.
Beautiful, sunny long weekend and I've got no bike :( It's a 2006 599, I've taken great care of it so I'm really bummed.
To save me on labour costs, thought I'd find out if anyone here has ever had this happen to them. Or heard about it?
Boo bad electrical system, boo!

I had battery issues with my '04 during season #2 with the bike. Symptoms were starting issues, not running issues however. I found once I got it going she'd treat me well, it was getting her going which was the problem. I figure I got lucky and got the one crap battery the dealer had. New battery in this season and not an issue to report.

Hopefully your solution is just this simple.

Sounds like a loose wire to me . . . Did you check your battery terminals, fuses, alternator connections, switch wires, and all that stuff?

Without a multimeter and the time to actually run the bike for a while it's going to be tough to nail down exactly what's wrong.

Like Sachi said, check for a loose connection first, as it's an intermittant problem it's most likely a loose wire somewhere.

But we'll start with the basics. Go to Canadian Tire, pick up a $20 multimeter and we can run a couple of tests.


Start the bike (in a ventilated area).
Set your multimeter to 20 Volts DC, and check to see what the numbers across the battery are. Red wire to positive terminal, black wire to negative. You should be seeing 13-16volts. If not there is a problem somewhere inside your charging system.

Take the left side panel off (you can leave the bike running). Along the left side there is a rubber cup thingy that covers all your electrical connections (assuming your '06 is the same as my '04). You'll want to look through there for the three yellow wires.

Disconnect the three yellow wires (you've disconnected your alternator now and are running solely on battery power so don't leave it like this for too long).

Set your multimeter to 200 volts AC (Alternating Current), you now want to check between the wires, all of them. So basically call them A, B, and C.

Check the read out for
AB
BC
AC
all should be very close. If one is different it means you've got a bad coil.

Turn off the bike while you're there, and switch your multimeter to ohms (any scale) and check for continuity between
A and ground
B and ground
C and ground
all three should read infinite resistance.

If the alternator is fine, it's possible that your rectifier/regulator has shit the bucket... can't test for that as Honda says you need a special tool. So here's hoping you find the problem somewhere else.

I would check for loose connections though, much more likely... as your bike seems to run fine for a while after a boost, and a boost wouldn't give you enough battery power to run for two full hours. Hell a fully charged battery will barely last a whole race :O.

Keep us updated though.

Electricial problems are often mechanical problems. That is to say it is often a loose connection of some sort.

The weak link is the battery itself and an early normal failure for a battery is 12 - 18 months. You can shorten the life of the battery by 1)overcharging 2)heavy discharging 3)heavy shock/vibration 4)and other unmentionables.

A battery can have internal connections go weak when over heating and give failure symptoms such as observed. I had a similiar failure with a car. I couldn't find the problem. The car would not start, the lights were on while looked for a problem. I touched the battery post and it was hot. Bad connection, that was getting hot from headlight amps. I was right on the edge of good/bad connection.

Check the yuasa battery site for maintenance tips. They don't give a lot of specifics because there is just too many varibles. Winter storage and spring startup followed then the battery should be as good as before winter storage.
http://www.yuasabatteries.com/cutaways.asp

If you haven't distrubed the electricial connections (left the bike stock), you aren't likely to have loose/bad connections. Corrision can happen but that is visible and is an area that needs attention

Without making mesurements with multimeters and take a Basic electricial course, all one can do at the home shop is check connections and replace the battery. Yuasa's tips are valid but vague. You really don't need be concerned with electrolite levels. The battery is most certainly sealed and if you have a battery like in a car that has been treated normal, once you have to start adding water, the battery is in it's waning days.

Whoops, posted in the wrong section. Sorry.

Thanks for the tips guys.

Hope to have her back to normal in no time.

Maybe it lost some smoke somewhere :lol: :lol: ................... ok now lets see who knows what I mean hehehe

Have you made any changes/mods to the bike that may have caused a problem?

Have you made any changes/mods to the bike that may have caused a problem?

Nah, bike is stock. It's another nice day without the bike :(

Maybe it lost some smoke somewhere :lol: :lol: ................... ok now lets see who knows what I mean hehehe

Electrical components all have smoke stored inside them. So long as you keep the smoke inside they will continue to work.

You don't know a Brad Chorney do you?

I have a friend with a 919 who had what sounds like exactly the same problems as you. His problem was a loose connection to the battery. Easily resolved....the problem never recurred....

hahahaha someone does know thats too funny ...... some garage humor there ........ nah sorry dont know anyone by that name dude !!! and if you have a wiring problem or a short somewhere the wire that lost its smoke is the wire with the problem heheheh :lol:

Lesson...check the stupid stuff first.

Thanks for the loose cable connection info. I was having trouble keeping a charge in my battery (So I thought) . It turned out I had loose connections to my battery. I had been disconnecting it while installing new lights and failed to tighten the screws all the way.

cut to the chase...I pulled the battery out, screwed the posts back in as tight as possibe (The positive was loose) and it started up and my troubles have gone away. Thanks again.

I am having Peppers exact same problem. happens about once every three weeks. I took it to the dealer and they can't find anything wrong with the battery. If I get a boost, it will stay charged for a good long while before it goes dead again. One thing I can say for sure is that every time it has happened, the bike has been VERY hot from serious mountain road rides.
Does anyone have any additional input?

Starting to wonder if the V-Reg has a resetable temp switch or something... Maybe an aftermarket all solid state part would work better...?

Did you pull out a multi-meter and do the tests?

The first time it went dead, when you hit the button what did the bike do? Did it make a noise? Did it turn over? Nothing at all?

Occasionally I have this problem as well. I make sure to connect the trickle charger to the battery at least once a month to keep everything running smooth. When it happens, I get a clicking as the engine tries to turn over. If I push to hard, I'll loose all power - lights, signals, gauges. If I get a bump/push start, I can usually get her running long enough to ride home and then break out the heavy duty charger for a half hour or so and get back to riding. Does that sound familiar?

The problem is the on-off switch. I have the same problem..