Was given this advice around 30 years ago

[fastbysuzuki]

Just thought I would air some advice I was given when I got my GS 850 and maybe start a conversation an old mechanic told me to always keep a good battery on the bike, and always turn on the lights when it was ticking over and not at high revs he believed this put less strain on the charging system and preserved the stator and regulator.
i did follow the advice just finished the install of new stator and 775 so the original parts lasted 40,000 miles and still charged at a max of 13.8 v luck or was the advice good ?

[JTGS850GL]

Hard to "turn on the lights at high reves" on any of my bikes since the lights are on all the time. The problem with most issues related to the charging systems on our bikes is more corrosion of connectors and low current draw (no headlight on) since the R/R is a shunt type regulator. The 775 series regulator will fix that.

[posplayr]

Just thought I would air some advice I was given when I got my GS 850 and maybe start a conversation an old mechanic told me to always keep a good battery on the bike, and always turn on the lights when it was ticking over and not at high revs he believed this put less strain on the charging system and preserved the stator and regulator.
i did follow the advice just finished the install of new stator and 775 so the original parts lasted 40,000 miles and still charged at a max of 13.8 v luck or was the advice good ?

I think most of that advice was from the Shunt R/R era. It also sounds backwards as you want loads ON when charging the most with SHUNT R/Rs. If teh loads are lower teh higher teh stress on the R/R and stator from the power/current shunting( dumping) away from the electrical systems.

As mentioned with the Series SH775 you the advice can be disregarded.

[fastbysuzuki]

I think most of that advice was from the Shunt R/R era. It also sounds backwards as you want loads ON when charging the most with SHUNT R/Rs. If teh loads are lower teh higher teh stress on the R/R and stator from the power/current shunting( dumping) away from the electrical systems.

As mentioned with the Series SH775 you the advice can be disregarded.

Hi yes it was from the shunt era I realise that the series rectifier solves the issues and thanks for the help and information you have given me and others.

[tkent02]

On the early bikes, turning off the headlight turns off 1/3 of the stator's coils, maybe this is what he was talking about.

I haven't had any electrical failures yet, in about a half million miles on a whole bunch of different size GSes, although I have rescued a lot of them with bad charging systems. Every single one had corroded and burnt connectors as the cause of it all. Clean it all up, replace the failed parts if there are any, good to go another ten years or so.

If people would have done that thirty years ago almost none of them would have failed.