KenGLong wrote on 01/27/10 at 11:17:58:The bike starts fine with a car battery hooked up but the voltage on the battery still drops at higher revs. It's not supposed to do that, is it?
(Forgive me for replying to my own post but posting here is kind of like talking out loud. It helps me to organize my thoughts.)
I just checked the battery voltage on another bike that is running fine (a Kaw Vulcan 900). It drops in the same way as the Savage. It's about 14.5 at idle then drops to about 14.0 at higher rpm. So I guess the drop is not abnormal. Now I'm not too sure if the rectifier/regulator is really bad.
I just finished charging the new battery and will check it in the morning to see if it's self-discharging. A couple minutes after removing the charger, the battery voltage was 12.1. If it goes down by an appreciable amount, I might have a bad brand new battery.