Tonight the wife and I were going to take the Savage to dinner.  I tried to start the bike and the new battery I bought 3 weeks ago was weak.  I figured that maybe I had accidently turned the key to the position where the tail light was on and ran the battery down - but I don't remember seeing tail light glowing in the garage all week when I turned the garge lights out.  Also - the battery was not dead but did not have enough juice to start the bike.

After about 1/2 hour the bike would start - so I rode for about 4 miles and came home to pick my wife up.  I purposely shut the bike off to make sure it would start again....and it did so we drove off to dinner.  About 5 miles down the road I stopped for gas - and the bike would not start as the battery was weak and would just barely turn the engine over once.

Well........we tried push starting the bike....what a joke.  In anything less than 4th gear the rear wheel would just slide on the asphalt.  If I tried the starter just before letting the clutch out - it would open the compression release and I would get one revolution of the engine before the rear wheel locked up.  If I tried 4th or 5th gear I could get a few more revolutions - but when the engine fired is immediately stalled as it was going too slow for that gear.

Finally, we found a guy with jumper cables and put the ground on a frame bolt and the positive on the starter lead - and had them connect the cables on the car when I hit the starter button.  It started right up.

Tomorrow I will check the charging circuit and make sure there is no drain with the key off.  The bike seems to be charging as the lights are all bright when it is running - the Neutral light glows brightly.  When the engine is off the Neutral light is dim.  The battery seems to accept a charge and come up to voltage - but it has no storage and drains immediately when you hit the starter button.

I always do it in 1st with the starter bump to get going.
it'll chug a couple of times before it catches.

and did you expect it to be charged in 5 miles?  

check the connections to the rectifier.

verslagen1 wrote on 05/18/12 at 19:47:40:


This.
You will not recharge your battery with 5 miles of riding.

verslagen1 wrote on 05/18/12 at 19:47:40:


I tried pushing while the starter while we were pushing - but I could not use the starter button with the clutch out.  The safety switch would shut the starter down whenever I let the clutch out.  The ground was very flat where we got fuel and my wife is not much of a sprinter.  Whenever we got it moving and I let the clutch out - she would come crashing into my back as she did not have enough arm strength to keep pushing when the bike suddenly slowed down.

I really don't think it is the charging circuit - as the lights glow brightly when the engine is running.  I will however get the bike started this morning and check the voltage a the battery with the engine running, then again when off.  I believe the battery has lost the amp/hour capacity and just doesn't have enough "juice".

Get a BigCrank.

/end

For those of you who have been succesfull with the push starting......I guess I need to eat more Wheaties (and burgers and fries and pizza).  I am 5'-8" tall, weigh 156 pounds, and my body fat is down around 10%.  All I could make happen is one engine revolution as is I would bounce down on the seat as I let the clutch out - then the rear wheel would just slide.

I just did some checking on the bike.  With the battery on a charger/tender overnight the battery had 12 volts and started and the electric starter did not sound overly eager.  When the engine started the voltage went up to 14.8 volts and hovered around that value when the engine was running.  When I shut the engine off the voltage slowley dropped back to around 12.  I was able to start the bike twice more - then the battery would not engergize the starter anymore.  The engine did not crank over more than a couple of revolutions with each start - so the battery does not have the ability to crank the engine more than about 10 revolutions total.  I now have the battery out of the bike - and it is losing about 1/2 volt each hour and is now down to 11.1 volts.

I will take the battery back today and get a replacement - it has a 1 year warranty.

That should go in the tech section.

Routy wrote on 05/19/12 at 06:51:33:



This can't be overstated. A battery's voltage is an average between fully charged and fully depleted, not what a battery voltage is when fully charged. Check a brand-new AA battery, its voltage is closer to 2V than 1.5V. For a lead-acid battery starting an engine, it only really performs well when it's fully charged - 12V just won't cut it.