i am havein so battery issues how long should a bike battery last the one i have is bout a year old

 

are you sure its your battery? If its not holding a charge, theres a good possibility its the regulator/rectifier. Its a pretty common problem on older hondas. Theres a test out there somewhere on the net that you can do to figure out if it is indeed the battery or the regulator. do a search

 

Do you store the bike on a trickle charger? Without a consistant charge (either from periodic riding or a battery charger) my experience is you will only get 1 or 2 seasons from a battery. Storing the bike outdoors in cold climates makes things worse. It also depends on the quality of the battery (ie: Walmart or Yuasa). I would charge the battery for several hours and have it load tested, if it passes, then look into the charging system.

 

well i replaced to r/r about this time last year when i replaced the battery it holds a charge if i ride every day but if i let it sit for two or three days its a pain in the *** to start and the battery acts like it does not have enough power and it stays in the garage but it still gets rather cold in there

 

I dont think its the cold weather killing your battery. I know people who have had the same battery for several seasons with no problem. So i would say test the charging system again. maybe its your stator? If not maybe you just got a bad battery

 

Cold does NOT kill a battery. HEAT kills a battery. If you don't believe me check with a battery mfg.

My new Yuasa battery says that it will lose about 15% of it's charge each month not in use. For the heck of it I always started and ran for 5 or 10 minutes each week I didn't ride. Now that the snow is flying I have a battery tender type charger hooked up. The mfg says that is the correct thing for these small batteries.

I would say the battery is bad or you used a charger initially that provided too many amps on the charge cycle. It should only be charged at about 1-1.5 amps. Anything more will kill it. (possibly the R/R you installed has gone bad)

I'm waiting for my own experience, but I was told if you maintain a battery using the small tender or ride constantly, you should get three years or so.

 

Do you have heated grips on your bike and are they working ok, I found out previous experience that my box was faulty and had shorted which made them constantly on with no led display showing.

 

How do heat and excessive cold affect my battery?
Heat increases the rate of evaporation, which causes a loss of water from the electrolyte. Extreme heat also increases the rate of self-discharge and promotes the corrosion of the positive plate grids. Extreme cold dramatically reduces the speed at which chemical reaction can occur, while increasing electrolyte resistance. It is important to keep batteries at a full charge during periods of extreme cold. Batteries in a discharged state are susceptible to freezing, which can cause damage to the plates and battery container. Automobiles demand more from a battery in freezing temperatures as the motor oil thickens and makes the engine harder to crank.

.....hmmmmm. Hope this helps.

 

ok everything eveyone has said has helped some way shape or form how can i test the stator and i have noticed since i replaced r/r while the bike is running all the lights are dim but once i put some rpms say around 2000 - 3000 everything gets brighter then over bout 3500 everything dims again any idea as to whats causing this any help is greatly appericated

 

Go to the general tech session (you will see the header when you first log onto the forum). It has several very good threads on this very subject...check them out. They are in depth step by step guides....