SuzukiSavage.com - Left lights on.

arteacher Serious Thumper Offline Ride as if your naked and invisable! Posts: 2581 London ontario Gender:	Left lights on. 08/13/11 at 06:12:33 I left my key in the ignition with the ignition on for 2 1/2 hrs yesterday. Bike wouldn't start. Let it sit for 15 min- started right up. Set it to fast idle for 20 min and shut it down. Did I do any damage?
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ero4444

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Re: Left lights on.
Reply #1 - 08/13/11 at 06:40:17

Every time you flatten a battery and recharge it, its useful lifetime is shortened, and it's max voltage and capacity is reduced. Low voltage allows sulfate coating to build on the plates and it's not removed by recharging.

If the battery still starts the bike then keep using it. When you eventually have trouble starting, then you can bump-start your way home and order a new battery.

On a hot day I don't want to fast-idle my air-cooled bike.

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c2001, 3800miles, 3rd owner, adjusted idle, raised seat, Tkat brace, Raptor petcock, cleaned carb, replaced some jets, Dyna muffler, Fiamm horns, Shinkos, future Ed L. forward controls, fork boots.

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drums1 Serious Thumper Offline '87 Savage Bashed--Down for the count Posts: 664 Racine, Wisconsin Gender:	Re: Left lights on. Reply #2 - 08/13/11 at 06:40:26 You may need a new battery sooner than you would have. From what I've read, the battery doesn't really get "charged" much while the bike is running. And batteries typically only last 2-3 years, depending.
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Routy Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 2280 Winston Oregon Gender:	Re: Left lights on. Reply #3 - 08/13/11 at 06:45:30 I promise you did not do any note worthy damage in 2.5 hrs. Besides that, if it started in 15 minutes of setting, the battery was NOT flattened. But, by all means, fully charge it, either by riding for 4 hrs, or preferably a smart charger overnite.
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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: Left lights on. Reply #4 - 08/13/11 at 07:07:09 Ive left mine on , not quite that long,but for more than an hour,, & never saw any consequences from it. If youre really wanting to wring every minute of life outta that thing, keep an eye on the water level & hit it with a float charger.
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arteacher Serious Thumper Offline Ride as if your naked and invisable! Posts: 2581 London ontario Gender:	Re: Left lights on. Reply #5 - 08/13/11 at 07:15:06 Routy wrote on 08/13/11 at 06:45:30: I promise you did not do any note worthy damage in 2.5 hrs. Besides that, if it started in 15 minutes of setting, the battery was NOT flattened. But, by all means, fully charge it, either by riding for 4 hrs, or preferably a smart charger overnite. Four Hours? Really? Continuous?
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Routy

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Re: Left lights on.
Reply #6 - 08/13/11 at 07:25:30

arteacher wrote on 08/13/11 at 07:15:06:

Routy wrote on 08/13/11 at 06:45:30:

I promise you did not do any note worthy damage in 2.5 hrs.
Besides that, if it started in 15 minutes of setting, the battery was NOT flattened.
But, by all means, fully charge it, either by riding for 4 hrs, or preferably a smart charger overnite.

Four Hours? Really? Continuous?

To be safe,......but hard to say really. As was said, there isn't all that much charging going to the battery, and as the voltage comes up, the charge rate goes down too. Not that much of a concern, except that the more time a battery spends at less than full charge, the shorter its useful life will be.

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Rich
'07 S40 Blvd stocker, except drilled OEM exhaust and white spacer mod...1/2 (.055)

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Fish

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Re: Left lights on.
Reply #7 - 08/13/11 at 09:32:27

Routy wrote on 08/13/11 at 07:25:30:

arteacher wrote on 08/13/11 at 07:15:06:

Routy wrote on 08/13/11 at 06:45:30:

I promise you did not do any note worthy damage in 2.5 hrs.
Besides that, if it started in 15 minutes of setting, the battery was NOT flattened.
But, by all means, fully charge it, either by riding for 4 hrs, or preferably a smart charger overnite.

Four Hours? Really? Continuous?

To be safe,......but hard to say really. As was said, there isn't all that much charging going to the battery, and as the voltage comes up, the charge rate goes down too. Not that much of a concern, except that the more time a battery spends at less than full charge, the shorter its useful life will be.

Unless you have some mega size gas tank no stocker could ever ride continuously for 4 hours at speed. Wink

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Gyrobob

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Re: Left lights on.
Reply #8 - 08/13/11 at 09:36:50

arteacher wrote on 08/13/11 at 06:12:33:

I left my key in the ignition with the ignition on for 2 1/2 hrs yesterday.
Bike wouldn't start. Let it sit for 15 min- started right up. Set it to fast idle for 20 min and shut it down. Did I do any damage? Huh

All you did was shorten the battery's life a few weeks.

I'd check the acid level, though, to make sure the deep discharge/recharge cycle didn't change things much.

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Markusublime

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Re: Left lights on.
Reply #9 - 08/13/11 at 09:45:22

Its never a good idea to charge a dead battery off a vehicles charging system.when i was in my mechanic trade school we had an instructor give us a demonstration of what happens to an alternator when forced to charge under a heavily loaded condition.an alternator will usually hit it's rated max amperage output at about 12.5v but he loaded the one on the tester down to 12.1v.the alternator we were testing was rated at 90amp output,but at 12v it was putting out almost 200amps it took about 3-5 mins before it started burning up,there was smoke pouring from it and sparks flying out the back.this is why when you buy a new alternator there's usually a tag on it or in the box at states "battery must be fully charged before installation,or you may void warranty" I know sometimes you gotta do what you can to get going,but whenever possible use a charger to charge a dead battery and not the charging system.

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Gyrobob

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Re: Left lights on.
Reply #10 - 08/13/11 at 09:53:06

Markusublime wrote on 08/13/11 at 09:45:22:

Its never a good idea to charge a dead battery off a vehicles charging system.when i was in my mechanic trade school we had an instructor give us a demonstration of what happens to an alternator when forced to charge under a heavily loaded condition.an alternator will usually hit it's rated max amperage output at about 12.5v but he loaded the one on the tester down to 12.1v.the alternator we were testing was rated at 90amp output,but at 12v it was putting out almost 200amps it took about 3-5 mins before it started burning up,there was smoke pouring from it and sparks flying out the back.this is why when you buy a new alternator there's usually a tag on it or in the box at states "battery must be fully charged before installation,or you may void warranty" I know sometimes you gotta do what you can to get going,but whenever possible use a charger to charge a dead battery and not the charging system.

What Markusublime says is gospel, but I wonder how that reality affects the wimpy little alternator on a Savage?

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If you think there's good in everyone, you haven't met everyone.

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Serowbot YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline OK.... so what's the speed of dark? Posts: 28666 Tucson Az Gender:	Re: Left lights on. Reply #11 - 08/13/11 at 09:54:20 Idled for 20 min. ?... Did you blue your pipe?... Mine sure would,... ...'cept, it can't get any bluer than it already is... ...
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arteacher Serious Thumper Offline Ride as if your naked and invisable! Posts: 2581 London ontario Gender:	Re: Left lights on. Reply #12 - 08/13/11 at 11:38:44 Fast idle- 2000 rpm.
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arteacher Serious Thumper Offline Ride as if your naked and invisable! Posts: 2581 London ontario Gender:	Re: Left lights on. Reply #13 - 08/13/11 at 11:40:59 Not topic related: Marcusublime- check your pm's if you want to check out the Corbin.
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mmosel

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Re: Left lights on.
Reply #14 - 08/14/11 at 00:18:10

My battery has been freaking amazing. It's sat through multiple winters where it wasn't even started for a couple of months.

Eventually, about a year or so ago, I had a hard time getting it to start. I pulled out the battery and filled up the levels with distilled water. I then charged it on a slow charger and put it back in the bike. Started up great.

I then decided to try one of these silly solar trickle charger things on the bike. I left it on for a day and a night, and when I went to start the bike - battery was drained. The doohicky said it had a circuit to prevent loss of charge. Didn't work for me. I threw it away.

I recharged it again. Worked great.

I recently moved, and I had to put my bike in storage for about 2 months. When I finally went to try to start it, it turned over fine. Except I was out of gas. I tried to start it until I couldn't turn it over any more. I pulled the battery, brought it home and charged it fully, and then trickle charged it twice for about 12 hours each time. I took it back, put it in, added some gas and it fired up on the first try.

I was all set to fork over the 80 bucks for a replacement, but it is still going strong. I know I'll have to replace it soon, but it's been amazing. I've had it for 6 years now probably. It's a Yuasa.

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