A perfect riding day ruined ( Battery )

Glorious weather, everyone out mowing their lawns.
Just went to fire her up, crank crank dead. LCD spazzing out due to low battery.
Stupidly didnt leave it on the tender, and it has 2 tiny LEDS in the cig charger socket and a low current drawing alarm. Those two combined must be killing off the battery.
I have no idea how old the battery is, so does anyone know how to tell if it is a factory C800 battery installed?
Any advice for a new batt? I had a Motobatt in my Virago which was pretty powerful and came pre charged.
I know batteries generally have a 2 to 3 year shelf life so i'm not upset about replacing it, just that its such a nice day and my charger is only 1.25 amps!

Jump start? Ride round block for 15 minutes and see if it will recharge.

Bluesman wrote:

Jump start? Ride round block for 15 minutes and see if it will recharge.

Not sure how i'd feel about bump starting that big lump. 
The charging system is fine. It happened before where it barely started one day, but after a bit of a ride it was fine. I'd imagine such a low charge stresses the stator though

Standard battery is a Yuasa.
Just changed mine yesterday as it was 5 years old just because it was possible to get a 14amp one for £35-00 from a local battery shop but it is still ok as I use an Optimate when it's not being used. I'll use the old battery as a checker unit when I need to.

EazyDuz wrote:

Bluesman wrote:

Jump start? Ride round block for 15 minutes and see if it will recharge.

Not sure how i'd feel about bump starting that big lump. 
The charging system is fine. It happened before where it barely started one day, but after a bit of a ride it was fine. I'd imagine such a low charge stresses the stator though

I was thinking jump leads from another bike. With a bump start you'd need a nice slope  - 2nd  gear is best and remember to turn on the ignition!

Stock batteries are only 12v (Volt) - /10ah (AmpHour) which is not a lot of AH at all really. Especially when you consider the size of engine it is turning. However I upgraded mine to a 12v/14ah, which is a lot of extra 'ah' when all's considered but in % it's better than feck all as it's 40% more. Because of the low 'ah' of the battery it doesn't take a lot of time before there isn't adequate power to start the bike, especially when you have an alarm fitted. You say the alarm is a low current draw unit, well that's a matter of opinion when you consider the ah of whatever battery it is running on. You mention the LED light running, well let me tell you that the LED is negligible in the grand scale of things, running on milliamps over an entire day. I have a several permanent LEDs in permanent operation on my bike, as well as a digital LED voltage display. As for running the bike after a jump start, 20 minutes needs to be put back in the bike at running speeds to give the power used on a standard powered start. Sayinf that though the bike has a three stage charging system, with different voltages being put out at 3 different engine revolution speeds. Keeping the bike on a trickle charger is by far the best way of keeping the battery at a descent voltage for starting the bike. Failing that pop it on the charger once a week for a few hours, Don't ever think that a battery that is displaying 12 is volts good enough. A battery that is only displaying 12 volts will not actually start the bike. Don't forget that cold conditions also seriously affect the current or charging condition of your battery.
Here is a quick guide to battery condition:

I got it fired in the end. 2 hours on a 1.25A tender. Fired up instantly.
Weird because 2 hours before it was so dead it wouldnt even crank. Went for a ride and parked up a couple times and fired up again just fine.
Will remember to use the trickle charger more, may as well run the battery into the ground before buying a new one.
When i do ill get a Motobatt as they have more CCA's.

Hiya Duz.

Don't know if you've read Dave's thread about Battery Maintenance, but it's well worth a look.  After spending all my biking life on top-up battery's, I genuinely believed that "Maintenance Free Battery's" were that.  I was getting a red "Desufate" light on my Otimate, which would then flick onto the red "Weak" light.  Whipped the battery off, prized the "Do Not Open" cover & topped up the water - it took loads !!  I'm guessing it'd never been done.  Put it on a really slow trickle from my main batter charger - left it for a couple of days & checked the voltage.  It was holding steady at about 12.96 after 24 hours.  Popped it back on - the red light was still there!  Had a look at the Otimate connectors bike side & saw they were grubby - gave them a clean with a small piece of emery cloth - tried it again - straight to amber "Charging", then onto green in a very short space of time.

Taught me a couple of things - a "Maintenance Free Battery" isn't, & don't forget to check your Optimate connectors

So i ended up going the cheapskate option. Found a battery with high spec. 12v 12ah (stock is 10) and 190 cold cranking amps (stock is 180), for the sum of £22 with next day delivery!
Time will tell if its junk, but at about half the price of the equivalent Yuasa it was worth a punt.
Hooked it up (same size as standard batt) and bike fire up no problem.

That's sounds like a bargain - keep us updated how it pans out

katsd wrote:

That's sounds like a bargain - keep us updated how it pans out

I probably wont be able to give an opinion until a suitable amount of time has passed, so if i remember i'll update in a few months.
Unless it is the worlds shittest battery and fails in a couple weeks.
The website is Tanya batteries and reviews are generally very good. They do a 14ah one which is also the same size for about £35, with about 230 CCA i believe, but i figured the one i got should do for a punt.
Didnt want to risk going camping or something and finding the battery flat the next day. I like to be able to charge my satnav and phone etc too

Understandable - hoping to see another couple of years out of mine - I'll check back then

EazyDuz wrote:

I have no idea how old the battery is, so does anyone know how to tell if it is a factory C800 battery installed?

Yes that is the original/stock battery. Mr Intruder shows the exact same one as yoU have before he upgraded { LINK }

How is the cheapskate battery holding up Eazy, At half the price of a Yuasa one, I would imagine the punt you took was probably a good one?

Mr Intruder wrote:

How is the cheapskate battery holding up Eazy, At half the price of a Yuasa one, I would imagine the punt you took was probably a good one?

Holding up well. Left the bike a week while i was on holiday and it fired right up, no signs of weak starting.
If i get a year out of it ill be happy

Good to read.