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Am I screwed

DimitriT

DimitriT

Forum Sage
Past Site Supporter
Rode the bike to work this morning. The voltage indicator I installed showed low
charge most of the way (12-12.2V) and when I parked it I had 12.3V after I shut
it down. It was a 30 minute ride to work.

I'm wondering if I should call my wife to grab the jumper cables and follow me home
from work in the car. How far can I go on the battery alone before it dies?
 
It's at 11.7V on idle and 12.2V at 5.5K rpm.
Think it'll run for another 30 minutes?
 
Check the voltage with a meter on the battery itself, it may read higher. The permanently installed meter on my 1100G always reads a volt or so lower than the actual voltage, it's not a problem, just a voltage drop in the wiring to the gauge or something. If you see the voltage suddenly reading lower than it usually does, you have a problem, and the meter just paid for itself.
 
DimitriT said:
R...
.... How far can I go on the battery alone before it dies?
Click to expand...

It will run engine with lot less voltage than required to start the engione, so even if it will not start on th4e starter motor, the enngine could run if "bump" start it (also called push start).
I had to do that last week. Starter just went gar-rump once, battery about dead. I pulled headlight fuse, and I was able to bump start it just going down a slight incline (but motor was warm yet) and engine ran fine. Was not much abouve 10 volts when I got it home.

If pull headlight fuse the battery will last a lot longer, but you have to decide if want to ride that way.

Any chance of there being a battery charger there at work? Or jumping to another battery to charge it (not really recomended at all, but much more acceptable without other vehical running)?

Have read "storys" here on GSR of a group of guys riding acrost multiple states with one bike having no charging. Would swap batterys with other bikeever now and then. Run with no headlight fuse and bump start the bike, and run for quite some time (hour?) with bike not charging battery.
And we know that when charging system quites that can go quite some time before really notice, if dont have guage. You have guage, was there anything else you noticed that would not noticed if didnt have guage? I think you will make it.

Maybe alert the wife to be on standby.
ANd be on standby with creditcard for new stator and maybe R/R too.
 
Last edited:
It got me home ok and I did put a handheld voltmeter on the battery.

I first checked the handheld meter on my car batter and got 12.4V.

On the bike the handheld meter read 11.7V and the meter I installed
read 12.5V. So the installed meter is about 0.8V proud but I
think it might be sensitive to temperature. In the morning it read
11.9V and it was about 75F. In the afternoon it read 12.5V and
it was about 90F. Good to know.

I have a new stator and a Honda R/R which I was planning on installing.
I guess I'll need to do that work a bit sooner than I thought. They
seem to go every 15K miles. I'm hoping the beefier Honda R/R will help
it last longer.
 
My installed voltmeter is not accurate but it give me a good feeling of what is happening with charging system. It varies whit throttle and also drop in and out with flasher at stop. I find it very usefull to monitor brake light as it get down a few volts when hit the brake at idle so I can have an eye on both switches and brake lamp.:D
 
I also had to push start my 650g 2 weeks ago.

It refused to crank over, so there I am walking my bike threw the Wal-Mart
parking lot....looking for the perfect empty runway...hehe.

Of course it had to be the ONE day, that there plenty of soccer moms and other people sitting in their cars....for some reason.....all watching me!
(or trying to figure out what I am doing....)

Of course I have saddle bags which are fully loaded.
So I'm thinking...."I swear...if I can't clear my leg over these bags and I trip and drop the bike, I'm gonna be SO ****ed!"

But I put it in 2nd, started walking, than began running the bike a little bit and quickly hopped on, let clutch Out, and VVRROOOMM....off she went!
 
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