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Battery health and bike performance

  • Thread starter Thread starter gs750guy
  • Start date Start date
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gs750guy

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Can a sick battery actually affect the function and overall performance of the motorcycle.

A friend had a 1978 GS750 Suzuki in-line four motorcycle that had low miles on it and ran very well and was overall a well maintained machine.
One winter, he failed to maintain and put the battery on the battery tender and when he went to start up in the spring he installed the battery and the bike fired up immediately, but ran like it was running on three cylinders during the warm up period. He then got on the bike and went for a short ride and found that it ran real ratty, still like it was running on three cylinders, the turn signals would come on but not flash and if he turned on the headlight it ran even worse. He discovered that the bike actually was running on just three cylinders because he could place his hand on one of the header pipes and it was cold.

An older wiser motorcyclist learned of this and instructed him to take his battery to a local auto parts shop and have the battery checked out. Sure enough...the battery had one or two dead cells in it and was declared a junk battery by the parts store.

My friend then claimed he bought a new battery (and a Battery Tender to go along with it)....after properly charging it he slapped the new healthy battery in place and presto...the bike and all its electrical components worked beautifully! And all four header pipes were hot.

I had a hard time believing this story because I was under the impression that all the battery did was start the bike and then the bikes charging system would take over after that to run all the components, lights, spark plugs, etc.
Am I correct in this or am I all wet. Is a healthy battery all that important, and can a bad one have these kinds of affects on a bike?

GS750guy.:?:


Read more: http://www.goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=10952#ixzz1szuWINMu
 
MY Bandit is Very fussy like that, I started to have problems with the Tach and the Neutral lights under 3k rpm early this season, they would randomly turn off or flicker... My battery was going on its 5th season this year and I replaced it with a new one. Then Presto the bike has no electrical issues now...
Your Bike will generate enough current to run the system after 3k RPM or so... Under that the battery takes the brunt of the work it may have enough cranking Amps to turn the motor over but not put enough volts into the system to let it function properly... Coils in the GS's especially need at least good 12V sources to spark, under that expect intermittent or no spark. It's weird but true. A healthy Battery is crucial to a healthy electrical system on a bike!
 
Last edited:
gs750guy said:
Can a sick battery actually affect the function and overall performance of the motorcycle.

A friend had a 1978 GS750 Suzuki in-line four motorcycle that had low miles on it and ran very well and was overall a well maintained machine.
One winter, he failed to maintain and put the battery on the battery tender and when he went to start up in the spring he installed the battery and the bike fired up immediately, but ran like it was running on three cylinders during the warm up period. He then got on the bike and went for a short ride and found that it ran real ratty, still like it was running on three cylinders, the turn signals would come on but not flash and if he turned on the headlight it ran even worse. He discovered that the bike actually was running on just three cylinders because he could place his hand on one of the header pipes and it was cold.

An older wiser motorcyclist learned of this and instructed him to take his battery to a local auto parts shop and have the battery checked out. Sure enough...the battery had one or two dead cells in it and was declared a junk battery by the parts store.

My friend then claimed he bought a new battery (and a Battery Tender to go along with it)....after properly charging it he slapped the new healthy battery in place and presto...the bike and all its electrical components worked beautifully! And all four header pipes were hot.

I had a hard time believing this story because I was under the impression that all the battery did was start the bike and then the bikes charging system would take over after that to run all the components, lights, spark plugs, etc.
Am I correct in this or am I all wet. Is a healthy battery all that important, and can a bad one have these kinds of affects on a bike?

GS750guy.:?:


Read more: http://www.goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=10952#ixzz1szuWINMu
Click to expand...

Short answer, YES. Everything on the bike runs from the battery. The charging system replenishes the battery. If the battery is shorted out, it can consume the charging current and the battery current and you're left with sitting along side the road.
 
That was quite an exaggerated case but as pointed out the answer is YES.

A short in the battery can drive overall system voltage low and make things work like crap.
 
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