Here comes another battery question

[ride2hvn]

Guys, I'm dumber than a stick here.

My R3C is stored winters at the dealer. Last year, and again this year, I heard from the dealer that I needed a new battery when the bike came out of storage. Replacement batteries have been Yuasa. I'm a little annoyed that I have to replace the battery every year (1st one did last 2 years). I don't run the Rocket hard at all. Might that be contributing to the problem? Also, how should I be using the battery tender between rides to extend battery life?

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[saboteur]

My battery is the second one, installed new in march '10. the original was installed in July of '04, so no, battery replacement every year is not normal. A year ago mine sat in the barn untended, this past winter I brought the battery indoors and swapped the tender over weekly with another motorcycle battery. All is right with the world.

 

[albertaduke]

Guys, I'm dumber than a stick here.

My R3C is stored winters at the dealer. Last year, and again this year, I heard from the dealer that I needed a new battery when the bike came out of storage. Replacement batteries have been Yuasa. I'm a little annoyed that I have to replace the battery every year (1st one did last 2 years). I don't run the Rocket hard at all. Might that be contributing to the problem? Also, how should I be using the battery tender between rides to extend battery life?

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

the fact that you run your bike hard or not has no bearing on the life expectancy of the battery and changing every year is definitively overkill . the bike shop pulled one over you.
most battery like the yuasa are made in china the old ones are returned there and new leads and acids are reconfigured there .
generally from 1200RPM on your generator puts out max power and more rpms does not means more electric power anymore, same for all vehicules trucks cars airplanes etc etc when in cooler temp connect a battery tender (any small battery tender) if you park it in the winter you may want to remove it and hook it to the tender in a warm spot and that should do the trick I bought a odyssey 680 three years ago and it still goes on strong. so a normal batt life should IMO be 3 to 4 years.

 

[RKTBOB]

39 months and 32000 miles on oem battery with a tender..now have a Deka Battery installed and will have to wait to see life expectancy..but 3-4 years is good for a battery!

 

[9Ball]

If they won't allow you to keep a battery tender on it at their shop then you need to pull the battery and keep it on the tender at your home. If my bike sits for more than a week or two the battery runs down. Mine has the clock and an aftermarket alarm that draws down the battery when the bike sits too long.

Sounds like your dealer is selling a lot of new batteries each spring...

 

[atomsplitter]

My first battery lasted 5 years. Pull the battery from the bike when you store it and charge it like 2X/month. I'm not sold on 'tenders' as I've seen them boil off a battery over a winter. Not a real problem with AGM's but I'm just a leery kind of dude.

 

[Triple Trouble]

Original battery from '04 still working. This winter I was not able to put it on a tender but in March I put it on a charger for 15 mins and away we go for another year?
No cold starting problems either. Should I put it ib the battery museum when/if it finally fails?

 

[atomsplitter]

Original battery from '04 still working. This winter I was not able to put it on a tender but in March I put it on a charger for 15 mins and away we go for another year?
No cold starting problems either. Should I put it ib the battery museum when/if it finally fails?

No, send it for forensic analysis to see what was right with it.:bch:

 

[Lester532]

most battery like the yuasa are made in china the old ones are returned there and new leads and acids are reconfigured there .

Their website says "Celebrating 30 years of U.S.A. MFG"

 

[xhdskip]

Had to replace the wife's battery this year,
her first from stock on her '05.
Replaced it with a harley battety
same one I got for my '07 last year.