I just replaced the battery earlier this November; the old one (it wouldn’t turn the bike over) was just a year old, and now I’m having problems cranking the bike again even with the new battery. It has been below freezing at night for several weeks now and the starter will give the engine a weak couple of turns and then the dials on the speedometer will back off and then reset each time I try to start it up. If I put it on a charger for a while it will get me going and if I ride for a while I don’t seem to have a problem getting it started even after leaving in the parking lot while I spend a couple of hours in the gym. I have not put any additional electrical stuff on the bike and I have synthetic oil that is only about 3 months old. Any ideas about what up with this?

That's no fun! Sounds like you may have an electrical short that's draining the battery while in the off condition. You could check that by inserting an current meter in series with one of your batter leads to its battery post and see if there's any current flow when there shouldn't be. If there is, you'd have a starting point for examining your wiring and electrical devices. If there isn't, then it would be a pretty good indication that there's something wrong mechanically. The fact that things pick up with a fresh charge tells me that it's probably an electrical problem.

Good luck in finding the problem and have a Merry Christmas!

JM,

It's just the cold. I take it from your message that the bike is either in a carport/ unheated garage / outside under tarp? The R*'s hate the cold. The gear oil in the transfer case is heavy, (regardless if it's synthetic), and is very stubborn to start, .

I've started mine in the 20's and it takes it a while to get turning. This is just the 'nature-of-the-beast', until a warmer environment can be gotten to. (Mine is on a carport). I keep a battery tender on it. The tender has a cutoff to keep it from overcharging. It's a slow trickle charger that keeps the battery in top condition, (even for the cold). Cold is the worst enemy to a battery.

Have a few Northern friends that keep their bike in an unheated garage. They throw a blanket over it and use a small 50/60 watt lamp under the blanket for slight warmth. Have to be careful that the bulb touches nothing flammible. Just a thought. Might want to build up from 30watt light to make sure your not generating too much heat.

Good luck,

Odo

What Odo said.

In addition, I have found that when cold, my decopression release does not work as well. I take the cover off and pull out the spoon and it turns over much better.

Doc

JM,

I'll have to defer to both Doc and Odo on this one! I keep my bike in the garage and don't think too hard about riding until the temp gets up around 60. Doc was recently telling me about two feet of snow on the ground and being ready to ride if the temp would just get to the 40s! I was also wondering about the decompression release as being a possible culprit but I didn't know what to call it so I just left it out!

Anyway, good luck getting things going again!

Pat

Thanks guys,
My shop is unheated and when it was warmer I never did have a problem starting my R*. I'll check out the short first then I'll figure some sort of way to get it started while waiting for the sun. It shouldn't be too long considering I live in North Carolina. It was 54 out today and I rode for about 4 hours.
You all have a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, which ever works for you.

Would a gel battery be any better than the stock battery?

krb,

Depends on whom you talk too, LOL ! ! I like the heavy duty battery that Yuasa makes. YTX20HL-BS. This has 310 CCA, (cold cranking amps), at 0 degrees. I don't think the gel batteries have that much at '0' degrees. Not sure.

Lots of folks like the Odysey, (spellin ?), batteries. Can't remember the part #.

Sorry I couldn't have been more help,

Odo

I bought a SVR gell battery for mine a while ago.
Don't have the cold issue out here in Ca.
Guess it all depends on the CC amps.