I can't believe I did such a boneheaded thing. It sucked to go out to the bike all suited up and then not be able to ride this morning.

Will a battery tender bring it back to life?

Unfortunately - I didn't have time to take the battery off before I had to be at work. And this is where I get to expose my ignorance about motorcycle batteries - can anyone tell me what I need to get? I might be able to go pick up a new battery at lunch.

Thanks

You left it on? As in, with the key in the ignition and the light on?

Well dear, BTDT. You're in luck. As long as you have a reasonably new battery, a battery tender will bring it back up pretty quickly. What you'll need to do is take off the side panel (a 4 mm allen wrench if I recall right), and then wriggle the battery out of its slot. A battery tender comes with a short connector wire that you can leave connected permanently to your battery, and I recommend that you bolt this to your battery terminals first. Then reinstall the battery and sidecover, plug the tender in to the connector wire, and let it charge until the indicator is green. You'll be all set to go!

Or, jump it with a car battery and go for a ride. Your alternator will charge it so long as you keep the bike running for a couple hours...

Battery tender is probably the better way to go though ;) just in case your battery won't accept a charge. It would suck balls to get out there and find out that your bike won't start again... though you could always try to bump start it.

And you just know, when you ABS can't afford to stall it...you will.

My vote is a quality trickle charger (is the tender recommended for a "Dead" battery?)

Does any one have a recommendation on a specific tender that they like more than others? (I don't know I could pick a quality one other than "just give me the most expensive one please.")

Battery Tender brand. Period.

Be very careful if you attempt to jump a low capacity dead battery with a car battery. The large capacity, high current of a car battery can wreak havoc when applied to a completely rundown battery. There's a big voltage difference between a fully discharged battery and a fully charged battery, so its like a dead short to the car battery. Lots of current, big arc and possible damage, explosion . :yell

The real bad scenerio, to to have a real dead battery that has overheated from discharging. There is likely hydrogen gas about and and when you connect jumper leads, the arc can ignite the vapors. Anything could happen. Even if no explosion, the high current in the charge/jump connection can damage the plates by warping.

It is therefore imperative to limit the jump start current drain. The best way is to use the small chargers designed for small batteries. If you must jump start a motorcycle with a car battery, run the connect the positive lead with a brake lamp bulb in the lead.

:arrow: :idea: :arrow:

:lol: :lol: Batteries are loud as a stick of dynamite when they explode .... load tested a car battery once and as soon as the amps where applied to the battery KKKAAAAABBOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!! :lol: :lol: scared the living hell outta everyone .... was like an acetylene bomb going off :lol: ............. totally let all the smoke out of that one !!!!!! :lol:

NAPA sells a small, automatic, "Battery-Tender" style of trickle charger. Its about $20, it puts out 900 mA (perfect for a bike battery), and its made by Midtronics, a very well respected name in battery service equipment. I have one for my bikes at home, and I run several at work, to maintain the cars that our students train on. They will bring a car battery up from about a 25% charge overnight, and it has always treated my toys at home well. The only drawback, is it only comes with a set of alligator leads. To go the route of "permanent hookup" with an inline plug for disconnecting, you'll have to go to the bike shop and buy an extra pigtail with ring terminals. The ones for actual "Battery Tender" brand chargers fit the Napa model as well. You could also make one, as its just a 2-terminal "trailer plug" that allows the charging leads to be disconnected.

Be very careful if you attempt to jump a low capacity dead battery with a car battery. The large capacity, high current of a car battery can wreak havoc when applied to a completely rundown battery. There's a big voltage difference between a fully discharged battery and a fully charged battery, so its like a dead short to the car battery. Lots of current, big arc and possible damage, explosion . :yell

The real bad scenerio, to to have a real dead battery that has overheated from discharging. There is likely hydrogen gas about and and when you connect jumper leads, the arc can ignite the vapors. Anything could happen. Even if no explosion, the high current in the charge/jump connection can damage the plates by warping.

It is therefore imperative to limit the jump start current drain. The best way is to use the small chargers designed for small batteries. If you must jump start a motorcycle with a car battery, run the connect the positive lead with a brake lamp bulb in the lead.

:arrow: :idea: :arrow:

Actually, if done correctly you won't harm either battery in the least, no matter how long you leave it hooked up.

The biggest difference between the average car battery, and the average bike battery is the amp-hour rating. Most for bikes are very small (small starter motor) I believe ours is a 9 amp-hour battery. Cars are substantially higher ratings.

If both batteries are 12 volts then you're safe to use it to jump the bike. Do the following.

Ensure both bike and car are turned off.
Connect Positive cable to postive on car battery
Connect negative cable to negative on car battery
DO NOT allow the other two ends to touch!!!
Connect positive cable to positive on bike battery
Connect negative cable to negative on bike battery
DO NOT get positive and negative mixed up!!!
DO NOT start the car

Turn the ignition on on the bike
start the bike normally
disconnect negative on bike, positive on bike, negative on car, positive on car

What you effectively did was make one big battery with a large amp hour rating. If you were to attempt to start the car you would pull a lot of amp hours through the bike battery which would exceed its rated capacity and potentially blow it up. BOOM, sad face.


Oh, and if you find excess hydrogen gas anywhere near the hornet oem battery (a sealed unit) it's time to throw it out, cause it probably already blew up.


Can a brake light bulb handle the current that a starter motor draws without blowing?

Sev you obviously understand most of the electrical and mechanical parts of the bike. Some that post questions often don't understand all aspectsf the science and don't have meters, jumpers and assortments of connectors. The example offered by David is that is was likely that the battery was completely run down. If this case is true the voltage is near zero volts and you have instants of high current as the battery comes to rated voltage.

You can't really jump the motorcycle with the brake light in the circuit. You can use higher and higher wattage bulbs to give higher inrush currents and all have saftey value. A 55 watt lamp bulb allows a peak of about 6 amps. It provides a self correcting current limiter for a few minutes quick charge. You should then be able to jump as you stated.

What happens good with the brake light method is that the bulb glows bright and as the voltages equalize the light dims. After a few minutes, the motorcycle may start with the charge it obtained and the supplemental draw thru the bulb

Gonna trust you on that. We routinely jump bikes here using a great big 60 amp truck battery we've got at the shop (most of our bikes use 9 amp hour batteries). Just hook it up and hit the button, even if the bike's battery won't hold enough juice to turn on the lights.

Up at school where the instructors were anal about safety, and doing things correctly this was still done... and done in the same manner. All we used was a set of standard car jumper cables, and left the battery hooked up for substantial periods of time.

I could be totally wrong here, but the experience of my coworkers and instructors is what I'm going to go on.

Geez, David, I did the same danged thing... I think.

Last Saturday started with a patio door rescreening... that ended up being a replacement, and a 30-minute job turned into a three-hour job. (Long story.) So once I'd cleaned that up I thought I'd go for a ride. (Work first and then play, right?)

Well, while working on the screen door in the garage I started the 599 to move her around a bit, making room for the door job. No problem, right? Once done, I put away my tools and changed clothes, getting ready to go ride for a bit. Touched the starter button and... zip... nada... not a blink from the battery.

The only reason I could think of for the dead battery was that perhaps I had left the key in the ON position after moving things around. So I pulled the battery so as to put it on the charger. It only took an hour or so for the charger to do its job, so I took care of some other business while that went on.

By the way, when the terminal screw escapes the nice red protective terminal cover, it will fall into the most inaccessible place possible, teasing you every quarter-second with a bounce off of something you can't see. When you get finished cursing it, look on top the plate welded onto the bottom of the exhaust tubes. If it's like mine, it'll be there, hanging around with small gravel and laughing at you.

And then it will rain.

:x

I did this once on my SV 650 battery (the bike I had b4 my beloved 599) and an overnight charge on a battery tender brought it right back to life. Just as others have said, you battery will prolly come back to life if it not ancient. If it is ancient you may need to replace ymmv

For what it's worth the clock on the hornet will provide a continuous minor discharge to the battery :P Found this out the hard way when I let the bike sit over the winter... that combined with standard discharge killed the battery pretty dead.

A couple days on a tricklecharger with a "float" solved the problem. Fortunately it was still winter out when I ran into the troubles :D.

So bump start the damn thing thing and go ride.
Unless the alternators shot it will recharge the battery.

Had an old pickup once with a dead spot in the starter...made sure I always parked it on a grade so I could roll start it if needed.

I want say one more thing, then I'll ignore this post. I'm careful, especially offeriing suggestions to a novice, when fooling around two areas. 1) Gasoline and carburators 2) batteries.

There may be more, like don't stand in front of a car while the wife is pulling the car out of park. He was pushing to get pressure off the shifter (parked on a hill). The wife went through reverse to drive and ran over hom. He didn't think of the consquences of his action
I told a guy who was stuck (in a jeep) that you can tap the brake while on wheel is spinning and the differential will transfer to the other wheel. I forgot to tell him not to be spinning the wheels a full speed and lock rhe brakes. He brokes the cogs in the differential.

I seen batteries blow up, friends burned when a car backfires thru a carb, a mechanic of 50 years got a face full of acid (this from a overheated battery from overcranking and attaching battery cables to the posts). I seen cables bouncing from the magnetic field generated for connecting in a errant manner and dead shorting around the battery.

So, have any of you jumped a battery and used the saftey method of connecting the positive jumper first (pos to pos) and then connecting the negative jumper between automotive grounds, somewhere away from the engine compartment? This is not as crazy (or anal) as a person that routinely chocks his car tires on level ground.

Thanks for the feedback. Picked up the battery tender on Friday, but couldn't put it on until last night. I went ahead and took the time to put on the quick connects, because I'm sure I'll do this again. Since I had never used one, I figured I'd write it up - but I'll find a better place in the forums to do that.

It wasn't charged when I left for work this morning. Hopefully I'll have the green light tonight.

i hope that this isn't a thread jack ... forgive me if so.

a few weeks ago my advisor left his key in the 'on' position at school and drained the battery. 'no problem', i said, 'we'll just bump start it'. i've bump started both of the bikes i've owned (a 1980 cb750 and the 599) quite a few times without any problems whatsoever. i don't think i've ever had bump starting not work. on his bike (a 2006 750 cc honda cruiser ... a shadow or aero or something like that), i'd go to let out the clutch and the rear wheel would just start to slide happily along the pavement.

we eventually scrounged up some cables and jumped it off of my bike (but lord, it's a pia to get to the battery in his bike). is there something strange about cruisers that makes them impossible to bump start? hard tires? something about a two-cylinder motor? it was probably 75 degrees, so nothing should have been too cold, and i still have no idea why bump starting didn't work.

cheers!
.cyb
________
Friend Advice Advice (http://www.love-help.org/friend-advice/)

If the back tire just slides you either need to put more weight on it to hold the ass end down... or try in a higher gear. You can bump a cruiser... they're just tougher to push.

LOL ..... or SLAM your A$$ down harder when you pop the clutch :lol: :D

For about a month a friend of mine with a Honda Shadow had a dead battery that he refused to replace.

His GF got really big legs...

For about a month a friend of mine with a Honda Shadow had a dead battery that he refused to replace.

His GF got really big legs...

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/6003/musclewomen3is4.jpg

:run

Photoshop should have a filter that censors such abominations! :lol:

Something occured to me today.

Doesn't everyone turn off their bike with the key? If not... why not?

Something occured to me today.

Doesn't everyone turn off their bike with the key? If not... why not?

i'm pretty sure that the msf teaches using the kill switch. on the other hand, the honda manuals usually say something like 'the kill switch should only be used in emergencies', or 'it should be left in the 'run' position' or something like that. of course, on cruisers, the key is down by your left knee....

i always use the key. except when i use the kick stand.

.cyb
________
Ipad cases (http://accesoriesipad.com/)

Owners manual says to always leave the kill switch on and use the key .... the only time you use the kill switch is if ur gonna store it for some time or in an emergency ....... look it up in the owners manual ... its in there :thumbsup :D I have NEVER used my kill switch

I always use the kill switch...usually because I kill it about 100' before I get to the garage and then coast up so I don't annoy my neighbors...

Never left it on but have quite a few times :oops: realized I left the keys in it :roll: really cool when I become conscious of it after my food comes or I'm standing in the check out line of the store...I'm one lucky SOB so far... :wink:

Best use of the kill switch: When you are riding with your buddies...setup on the right side of one at the light...then just as it turns green, reach over, flip their switch and speed off. :twisted: pisses me off every time :lol:

All I know is that I turn it off with the key every time... and my battery doesn't end up drained ;)

TKV - thumb, key, valve. The only way to fly. ;)

When arriving back at home, I turn mine off with the switch. Reason? On warm days, the fan kicks on while I'm maneuvering around in the garage. If I turn the key off, then the fan drops. If I kill it with the switch, then I can let the fan run while I walk (maybe 50') to the mailbox. By the time I get the mail and get back to the garage, the coolant temperature has dropped and the fan has stopped. Then I hit the key.

Best use of the kill switch: When you are riding with your buddies...setup on the right side of one at the light...then just as it turns green, reach over, flip their switch and speed off. :twisted: pisses me off every time :lol:
That's great! :lol: If someone did that to me on my old 350, I'd be kicking it. :?

Well, yesterday I did exactly the same thing :banghead

I decided to risk the jump-start. Jumped it from a non-running car - no problems. Started right up, then I let it run for awhile, and took it for a ride. Everything seems fine.

I would have to say that I would be concerned about jumping it from a running car, though...

Bump, because I did this this afternoon. :oops:

VTHoky, I also like to let the fan run a little after shutting off to get that last heat out of the radiator. Unfortunately, tonight I also let the high beam run a little to get that last juice out of the battery.

Tomacana, I also use the negative cable-to-chassis ground method of jumping (although tonight, it's just the Battery Tender that's gonna save me, hopefully.) Anybody who hooks the last jumper cable lead to a battery terminal either hasn't seen enough sparking in their lifetime, or doesn't understand battery chemistry. (Hint: the two don't mix)

Here's hoping the Battery Tender gets the job done. I really don't want to cage it tomorrow. :cry: