Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Having a problem of late that i'm not sure its just the battery shitting itself.

I have the bike on a trickle charger when parked up, not all the time, usually throw it on the night before I plan on a ride just to be sure the battery is all sweet.

Got out for a ride on Saturday night, rode for 30-45 minutes and stopped of at a mates place for a few hours to watch the Port game and the F1 qualifying. Went out to start up, no worries at all.
Rode for another hour or so aimlessly around town and stopped to check where the fk i was (wrong turn). Checked google maps and I has a street or so away from where I wanted to be. Started up again, no worries.
Go to my destination, only about 2 minutes and parked up. 15 or so minutes later went to start up, and its kicking over but fails to fire up. And after two quick attempts to start I give up... as this has happened a few times and the battery drains pretty fast to zip.

Thankfully the side road was angled so a cheerful security guard gave me a push to jump start - fired up easy as pie.

Does this sound like any one problem in particular? Battery? Alternator? I read some shit about plugs getting wet and not being ridden for long enough to burn it all away... no idea about that one.

Sounds like it could be the battery. A new one is the cheapest way to start. Take it to a battery shop and get them to do a CCA test on it.

Spoke with a pretty clued up auto sparky who works on motorcycles predominantly today for a good 20 minutes on the phone.

He suggested the first thing I do is grab a new battery, and as soon as I've got it get the bike to him to check out blah blah... He thinks it could possibly be the starter motor brushes getting old/shit/low and causing it to draw more from the battery and leave little for spark when the battery is not at its best (ie. after starting the bike and only running for a very short period of time). Also a lazy alternator is a possibility. Both being theories until he checks it out.

So a new Yuasa YTX9-BS is $129.00 from BatteryWorld - have to beg the Minister of War and Finance for a loan

new battery should sort it out - but even so, get your sparkie mate to do some charging tests anyway....and old starter motor brushes can cause that problem but they have to be *old*.....like 70's or 80's vintage.