Maintenance Free battery

I haven't tried recharging it yet as I was under the impression that thes are sealed and non rechargable, it's a Menshy Bike Power YTX12-BS, does that help any.
Les

Headlights usually dont turn on until the bike is running.

Just for your info..

The headlights should come on when your hitting the ignition button (start button) but when you let it go they'll turn off again if the battery has failed to start the bike

Les, check the headlight fuse as well, given that you've checked every other fuse and have no headlight yet not checked that fuse seems to be an odd methodology I reckon, but as Duane said, lights shouldn't come on till bike is running.

Have you tried push starting it?

A Maintenece Free bike battery needs to be slow charged as it does not normally have the ability to vent the gases produced quickly enough when being charged by an normal automotive charger...

I'd strongly suggest using a charger no greater than 2amps for this process...

Les - feel free to shoot me a PM and i can get you in contact with someone who can charge and test this battery for you...

The voltage for the battery was 11.6 before starting, when it attempts to crank over it drops to around 7.5 to 8 volts

def. a symptom of a flatish battery, not necessarily a dead one how ever.. A car battery can be pretty low on charge and still register around 12v, as all the 2volt cells are coming up to close to their 2 volts without any load..

The test is once you charge it up does it not hold the current in which case cactus...

I've done this when I left the kes in the ignition on the 6, jump started the bike off the neighbours work ute.. bike ran a treat whilest connected, or once d/c if the revs were up.. but when near idle she died in the arse...

So jumped her again and kept the rev's right up... Still got the same battery over 8 months later, doesn't skip a beat... So I was very lucky.. I also d/c the head lights for the trip to work and back home in the arvo to ensure the battery got as much charge as possible. (I'm certainly not endorsing doing this, but it certainly helped me in my situation).

In this case if the battery had of gone flat(tish) again it would have been cactus.

Dan

i've got a 4A charger and it works fine with the bike battery

By the description of the location of the fuse for the headlights it should be around the left side of the bike somewhere, I found it after much digging but that was good too, turns out the ZXR headlights don't come on till she starts.
I got the good word from the bike shop, seems washing it combined with it sitting for a long time added up to a battery not quite up to the challenge, i'm recharging it, if it hasn't fried a cell all should be well, Thanks to all those who gave input
Les