Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

My battery has lost a lot of charge and won't fire up enough to start the bike.

Can anyone recommend the best type of charger to buy (and where)? Also, do I have to remove the battery to charge it, or can I leave it in the bike?

Thanks people

You could leave it in but once its disconnected (which you need to do) you can just pull it out. Would be nice and easy to charge it on the bench .

Also in the (very) rare case that the battery has an issue wiith charging your bike doesnt get damaged . That is unless the whole garage catches fire and burns to the ground with your bike in it - but in all probability this is unlikely to happen

Cougs

I have a trickle charger on the 12 (and on the race car and the front gate auto controller)
keeps the battery up to spec at all times

Our KSRC Dave the battery one (Red Dave that is) ...sells em
12v 350ma chargers or similar

maybe pm him

cheers

Smitty

if you leave it in the bike, disconnect the cables. you don't want the power going through your bikes electrics.
apparently its OK to leave the cables connected for a maintenance charge but not for recharging.

I always take it out of the bike.

I have it down to 5 mins now

dilligaf wrote:if you leave it in the bike, disconnect the cables. you don't want the power going through your bikes electrics.
apparently its OK to leave the cables connected for a maintenance charge but not for recharging.

huh.?
I have been leaving em connected on every bike I have had in the past 2 decades or so

anyway
whats the diff between having it connected ..and having the alternator charge the battery when the bike is running?
both keep the battery topped up


cheers

Smitty

Just a cheap ass automatic trickle charger from 'Stupid cheap' does just fine for bout $35.00


and I'm with Smitty.. I don't bother taking it out of the bike.. Just make sure you disconnect the charger before you try to start the bike.

There are a few old wives tails around about batteries like

"you must remove the caps when charging"(coz they automatically remove themselves when you start the bike!?-NOT)

Never leave a battery on concrete or it will discharge (It much prefers velour!!LOL)

The main reason it is RECOMMENDED you remove the battery from the bike prior to charging is to eliminate the "idiot factor" of shorting the terminals/alligator clips to the frame / earth etc which can easily cause a disaster..
The other reason is that if the battery is overcharged , it can spill sulphuric acid causing damage to paint / aluminium or anything else that used to be pretty before the acid got to it!!
(Hence why I use an auto charger = just in case I forget to disconnect the charger)


Hope it helps Coll'

Smitty wrote:

dilligaf wrote:if you leave it in the bike, disconnect the cables. you don't want the power going through your bikes electrics.
apparently its OK to leave the cables connected for a maintenance charge but not for recharging.

huh.?
I have been leaving em connected on every bike I have had in the past 2 decades or so

anyway
whats the diff between having it connected ..and having the alternator charge the battery when the bike is running?
both keep the battery topped up


cheers

Smitty

that what I thought but the mechanic that looked after my old bike said no.
cause its easy to disconnect the negative I do

Thanks for the replies - there seems to be some conflicting advice so am still a bit unclear on this.

The trickle charger may be the way to go anyway...

Colette!

The one from Supercheap is the one Eye candy recommends from memory. Get someone competent to hook it up in such a way that you can just plug your bike in when it's in the garage. Or, alternatively you may look at something like a battery angel. I think there was a post about them too. What they do is monitor the volts from your battery, and if it drops too low, it flicks a circuit breaker. Supposedly it makes sure there's enough juice left for you to kick the bike over

Hope this helps!


As for the charging bit, technically it shouldn't do anything to your battery. But if you can pull it out easily, I'd do it.

Colette wrote:Thanks for the replies - there seems to be some conflicting advice so am still a bit unclear on this.

The trickle charger may be the way to go anyway...

Your right Coll..

Some of us do this stuff for a living though

Colette wrote:Thanks for the replies - there seems to be some conflicting advice so am still a bit unclear on this.

The trickle charger may be the way to go anyway...

the trickle charger can be used to maintain the battery. the yanks do this over winter.
if I'm away from more than a month or so I do it. Its fine to leave the battery connected for this
and there is a plug in thingy to make it easy.
I have an OptiMate III charger. the instructions say
If the battery is deeply discharged, it is essential to disconnect the battery from the vehicle before connecting the charger for recovery
they distinguish between disconnecting and removing.

seems to be more to do with avoiding problems from damaged batteries

http://www.optimate-sp.com/

Thanks everyone who replied

Was looking at supercheap's online store - which of these ones would be the right type?

http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/Store/ ... px?Code=13

I thought red_dave said it was this one: http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/Store/ ... x?ID=20550

calling red_dave!

Benno wrote:I thought red_dave said it was this one: http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/Store/ ... x?ID=20550

calling red_dave!

Thanks Ben, Dave is away at the moment.

I found this one on MCAS web site:

http://www.mcas.com.au/_product.php?sec ... rodid=4832