Batteries

[SteveC#222]

The (cheapo) battery I bought for the XBR at the beginning of the year has just died!   You can put it on the charger all day, fit it to the bike and it will start on the electric starter but by morning it's so dead it won't even kickstart!!

I'm going to get a decent battery this time!  Varta are £28 Yuasa are £38 for the XBR.

Any opinions on which is best? (Can you fit the maintainence free gel batteries?)


( Yes I have checked the charging system which seems to fine.  The problem seems to be that the battery will take a charge but not hold one and discharges as soon as you put a decent load on it.)

[Steve Lake]

Deff not discharging through the bikes wiring system?....just a thought b4 you go and buy a new one.
charge it up off the bike for 24 hours....then disconnect the charger and leave it for 24 hours and see if it's retaing its charge.
I have always used yasua, but on the SRX there is very little load as no electric start, so usually get very good life out of my batteries.....and yes I use the 'jelly cellies'....but i'm not sure how good they would be at driving a starter....I have it in the back of my mind that gel cells can't put out a high discharge current such as a starter requires.

[SteveC#222]

Hi Steve,

Yes I tried charging for 24 hours and then standing it. Yes it retained the charge, but as soon as you put it on the bike and start it a couple of times, it loses all of it charge.  A run out on the bike will charge it up, but again as soon as you start it a couple times it dies.   I might try bodging it onto the GN250 and see what happens.

[bullet350]

i had a gel battery on my bmw r100. it could crank the engine over for hours (the b$^%ard still wouldn't start though).
if it can spin a beemer on a cold morning then the YB shouldn't be too much trouble.

The battery is a Hawker Odyssey

even now after its been left in the garage for two years (and not on a charger), i used it to start a friends Skorpion.

bullet350

[trophydave]

Hi Steve,

Yes I tried charging for 24 hours and then standing it. Yes it retained the charge, but as soon as you put it on the bike and start it a couple of times, it loses all of it charge.  A run out on the bike will charge it up, but again as soon as you start it a couple times it dies.   I might try bodging it onto the GN250 and see what happens.

Can you get your hands on a discharge tester?Your local garage or motor factors should have one.From what you are saying it doesn't hold any charge under load,ie starting the bike.
If you only bought the battery earlier this year is it still under warrenty?Can you take it back to where you got it from?