Winter Battery Maintenance: Charging batteries by starting the bike…

Use a motorcycle battery charger!

Time to dispel a motorcycle urban myth……………………

This blog is about charging your motorcycle battery by starting your bike and letting it tick over for 10 to 20 mins once or twice a month.

BUY A MOTORCYCLE BATTERY CHARGER, STARTING THE BIKE DOESN’T WORK, YOU WILL END UP RUINING THE BATTERY!

Motorbikes are meant to be used (not sat in a shed for months on end!). The best way to maintain a healthy battery is to use the bike regularly.
The 2nd best way to maintain the battery is to charge the battery up once or twice a month with a properly designed Motorcycle Battery Charger.
It is NOT advisable to try & maintain your battery by starting the bike up once a month & letting it tick over for 5-10 mins.
This method of charging a motorcycle battery actually uses more power to start the bike than the charging system will put back in at tickover & will, over time, flatten the battery.

When a bike is ticking over, the charging system is normally only putting a low/minimum voltage level (around 12 to 12.5 volts) through the system. This isn’t enough to charge a motorbike battery.
As the rev’s increase (e.g. when the bike is being ridden), the voltage level being put back into the motorcycle battery increases to around 13.5 to 14.5 volts & it’s the extra power being put, by the charging system, into the battery when the bike is being ridden that charges the battery.

A slightly discharged battery (over 12 volts) can sometimes be brought back to life by taking the bike out for a long run & really using the gears & the rev range.

Source: Motorcycle battery FAQ’s


Comments

2 responses to “Winter Battery Maintenance: Charging batteries by starting the bike…”

  1. colin mcfarlane Avatar
    colin mcfarlane

    hi I have a zzr600 1990 vintage she isn’t in the best of conditions but is very quick now then how do i pass my test as I did have a bus quickly which was very fast it would do 0-25 in 40secs I mean this is extremely fast

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *