A month or so back, after leaving my bike out in the freezing cold for the best part of 6 hours, the battery went dead. It had been a bugger to start in the morning and I guess the short trip to work wasn't enough to charge the battery sufficiently for my restart 6 hours later. Anyway, the RAC man breathed life back into the beast with jump leads and since then it has been running perfectly.
However, the snow that we had here in brighton yesterday morning gave me no chance of starting the bike, so I walked to work hoping that when I returned home the rise in temperature would allow the reserve charge to get her fired up. That theory worked fine. I rode her around for a while yesterday then put her back in position in the bike bay near my flat.
This morning at 645 am I was foiled in my attempts to start the bike, this time it was due to a thick layer of frost which covered the bike from end to end. Upon returning home from work, I tried to start her and there were a few clicks but nothing else. It is still loosely snowing here and the temperature can't be more than 1 or 2C. Again the RAC man is on his way to perform his heroics. And I now have the firm intention of purchasing a bike cover which I hope will prevent the frost and/or snow from killing the battery.

What I want to know is this: once a battery has gone once or twice, after being left out in extreme cold weather, does that battery then need replacing???? Or if i take the bike for a long ride, will the battery get charged up enough to restart tomorrow whatever the weather????I am sure the cover will help but could do with some expert thoughts on batteries from the Pros here at the cbr forum.

The bike is a 98' cbr 600 f.

If I do need a new battery, how much is the cheapest I could hope for????

anyhelp is greatly appreciated
cheers
d

 

Hard to say wether or not you need a new battery. Did this just start happening all of a sudden? The COLD is hard on our batteries! Have you checked your battery with a volt meter? With and without the bike running? It sounds like a shiety battery, but you need to see if the bike is trying to charge it. If the the voltage regulator/charging system is sending a good voltage while the bike is running, then the battery cant hold the charge and is faulty. IF, while running, the voltage isnt in charging range, then you need to look towards the charging system. My bike will fire right up with frost laying all over it, yours should also.....Hope I helped.

 

charge the battery and then do this:
http://cbrworld.net/forums/thread/140473.aspx

 

Thatll help!!!!!

 

if that dose not work u may need a new rectorfire of check the battery is charging whilse running
hope this helps

 

Thanks for the tips, people. Unfortunately I don't have a voltmeter so am unable to personally check the recharge ability of the battery and whatever device/electronical circuit builds up back up charge for the battery. The RAC chap had a voltmeter and after attaching jump leads to the battery and seeing the engine jump almost instantly backin into life, he attached the volt meter to some part of the bike and told me it was showing a healthy recharge voltage. I let the bike run with the choke out for a while then took her for a 30 miles blast which went wonderfully. But upon returning to Brighton, whilst waiting in line at a set of lights, the engine died again. And this time, despite the 30 mile trip and obvious opportunity to recharge the battery, whenever I pressed the ignition button all I got in return was a series of clicks fromsomewhere. No effort whatsoever to spark into life. AFter consideringmy situation fora further 10 minutesI accepted that these clicks were all the ignition system was currently capable of producing. I rolled the bike round the corner and bump started her in 2nd (very easily in fact) thenlet the engine idle for a while before riding home. I have used the bike several times since that incident with no problems whatsoever. But an hour ago, and today is 4 days after the last breakdown, whilst waiting in traffic andidlling the engine cut out andonce again all the ignition system would do is produce these clicking noiseswhich are no serious attempt to fire up the engine. After much cursing and pushing I found myself and the bike at the top of a hill andlet gravity mix with second gear,againfinding the enginebump start extremely easily.

Now if anyone can understandwhat I have written please offer somemore suggestions as to the roots of myCBR's irritating issues.

A few days before all these troubles (battery failure related issuescaused most likely by cold weather and no I hadn't had anyproblemswith the battery beforehand, in the 5 months of daily usage) I had mycarbon sports exhaust replaced with a Scorpion road legal can.COuld the change of exhaust systemhave in any way have contributed tomy dilemma???or is it more likely that the RAC man dislodged an important wire around the battery when he was jump starting the bike???But if the latter was the case, the bike wouldn't have restarted???

As before, I greatly appreciate any help you Pros can offer.

sincerely
physically empty after all that pushing,
dan
(cbr600 98 model)

 

do yourself a favor and buy a multimeter. They're not expensive.

 

[sm=morning.gif][sm=goodidea.gif]