Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

With all this talk of cold weather... and dead batteries... I am after some advice:


What is the best way to run the trickle charger leads to the battery in a 12R?

I obviously don't want to need to take the battery out as that's painful....

.. oh and while i am at it... does anyone clip their chargers onto the battery jumpstart cable?

Talk to red dave, he sells the shizzle of trickle chargers, with a little weatherproof plug on some tail leads you can leave permanently attached to the battery and just tuck away inside the fairing or along the frame somewhere.

Supafrog wrote:With all this talk of cold weather... and dead batteries... I am after some advice:


What is the best way to run the trickle charger leads to the battery in a 12R?

I obviously don't want to need to take the battery out as that's painful....

.. oh and while i am at it... does anyone clip their chargers onto the battery jumpstart cable?

I got my tricklecharger for the 12 from our battery guru...Mr Red_Dave
and i connect mine permanently to the battery posts (NOT the jumpstart cable) via the lead set which comes with the charger
the end of which just tucks into the fairing above the oil filler cap

the matching end of that connector obviously is connected to the charger via a long (about 4 metres i think) lead
that connector is shielded and will not allow you to get the polarity wrong either

agreed with smitty....mine is permanently connected to the battery post and just tucks under the fairing, the trickle charger should come with a little lead you fit to the battery posts and the ends will have a connector on it that wont allow you to get the polarity wrong....easy..
after your ride, just plug it in and the charger will do the rest for ya....then when your ready for your next ride, just unplug, and tuck lead into fairing somewhere and away u go.

so you have clips that have been glued onto the inside of the fairing??? interested in seeing *where* you are tucking the cable in(any chance of pics?).. ie: ordinarily i would have the leads under the seat.

they're not glued to the fairing, they just stick out of the side cover where the battery goes in, theres enough room to stick the leads for your battery tester out of that cover. will try to get pics for ya, but never really worked out how to post pics up....its either too hard, too complicated or i'm too lazy to work it out.
smitty might be able to post some up for ya.
Its easy as, when u get the battery tester and have the leads there, you'll see how it all goes....easy.

For winter storage, I just add some gasoline stabilizer and start it at least once a month, let it warm up and run it at 3,000 RPM for about 3 or 4 minutes in gear. I still have the original battery from 2004. By the way it gets a hell of a lot colder here than where you are, (-25 degrees F or -31 degrees C). Good excuse for Jim Beam.

Had a look at a mate's setup today with a optimate trickle charger. He had the lead running up underneath & into the rear under the seat cowl.

Here's some we prepared earlier (today)...

My FJ1100 just hanging there above the front sprocket cover.


My ZXR750 hooked up to the charger.


Macca's 9 also hooked up to the charger.


The tail leads are about a foot long except the one that comes with the charger which is longer. You bolt them to the battery terminals then poke them out through the side somewhere and cable tie them out of the way. That way you don't even have to pull a seat or a cowl off you just plug them in .

Thanks red dave you da man.

Thanks for the extra information.

Cable tying it will be i think )

I was primarily concerned with how the fly lead was dealt with when not connected to trickle charger as i didn't like the co ncept of it being able to flap about.

As you can see from the FJ it has a weather/waterproof cap and you don't need to leave heaps of it flapping around, just enough to connect it up to the charger.

Does Red Dave still sells these...?

Yeah I got a couple recently, PM him .

Bogan wrote:Yeah I got a couple recently, PM him .

Cheers..Will do

Thank you soo soo much for the information guys ;o)