The Battery Mod.

[gareth]

In spite of all the mods that I have done to my bike in the past couple of years, I was still using the original battery that was installed by the PO. I guess I should have figured that the thing was on the way out. When I would press the starter button, the motor would just lumber over a few times and then start. It had always done this and I just assumed that it was a big engine, maybe a bit advanced on the ignition, and that it took a big ole effort to turn it over. That's also why I couldn't figure out why guys like Randy could actually kick-start the thing. Not when a DC motor was having such a hard time...
SO yesterday, after a long spell idling at low RPM in traffic, I decided to turn the bike off and sit out a light. No start.I pushed the bike off the highway in 90 degrees and ATGATT. Nottalottafun. Found a sidewalk and managed to get the bike started by running it down the 4' sidewalk ramp and dropping the clutch. It was the biggest and closest hill in the neighborhood. "OK", I thought, "just lucky.."
Charged the bike up overnight. No dice..no start.
So I stuck in a smaller battery from a CB750. When I hit the starter button, the motor fairly whizzed into life. Jeez, it had never done that before.
And, long story short, the fresh battery has also completely cured the off-idle stumble that I had on acceleration up until now. Bike just goes nuts.. All the messing around with idle-mixture screws and pilot jets to cure it seem a bit of a waste of time. I am guessing with the low chronic low battery status, I just wasn't getting all the bang that I could outta the Accels and big-plug-gaps and the fancy wires until the RPM got to a certain point.
Maybe kick-starting these things isn't such a big deal...

So, the lesson?

Sometimes it's the battery.



Gareth.

[motoman]

Yeppers....that's what they do......when you least want it. Reminds me that Interstate in my Venturer now has five years on it......only killed once, added distilled water once and sill showed 12.8v and held a constant 10v loaded @ 270amps for 45sec.......no drop. Also has never had a Tender on it as I don't intend to own one......battery is only as good as number of times it will take a charge. Anyway, good reminder Gareth, as I need to watch for anything out of the ordinary with the primary and secondary ignition.......usually tells me battery time is up. Have one of these scoots long enough and it'll let you know something is up usually long before it will leave you stranded.