Do you have a battery charger? Based on what you have done and observed so far, the first thing I would do is trickle-charge the battery overnight. Even an hour of 20-amp charging will tell a lot. After charging, if you are able to start the bike and run it for a minute and turn it off and start it again, it will tell a lot about the condition of the battery. I think your battery can hold charge but not quite enough from just running the bike.

I had a similar experience with the fairly new battery on my Virago. It started every single try after trickle-charging it overnight.

 

Electricity is amps and volts. Just because the battery reads 12V doesn't mean its pumping out the amps. I'd pop it out and take it to a battery store and have them do a load test on it just to be sure.

Still sounds like a battery problem to me. Jumps fine off another system, runs fine... get it tested.

 

Took the battery to autozone today.

Their meter showed that the battery was 100% percent charged and outputting 12.8 volts. The technician said if it was dropping off so much when I tried to start it then one of the cells might be damaged.

Looks like I need a new battery then. I'm going to take it to cycle gear to see if they'll replace it for free since the battery isn't very old.

Update:

Took the battery to cycle gear they tested and agreed the battery was bad so they honored their warranty. They did not the same brand in stock so I bought a higher quality battery and paid the difference between the two, hopefully this will last me longer.

That aside, 5 months seems pretty bad for battery life. Could it be something in my bikes system that had a bad impact on the battery that cut it short?

 

This is why you never, ever, ever, ever trust Autozone. I've gotten in damn near a fight with a store manager over one of their Duracrap batteries that quit cranking my truck when it would drop below about 45 degrees.

They "tested" it and every time told me the same thing you got told, except they never mentioned the "possible bad cell" cause this would be a warranty item they would have to cover. I finally got them to replace it, but that battery didn't last but about 2 years anyway. I finally went and bought a Optima Yellow-top and have been trouble free ever since.

 

That is unfortunate, maybe he was honest about the bad cell concept because it was a battery they would have to cover. Cycle gear didn't give me any trouble in honoring their warranty so props to them.

I installed the new battery into my bike this evening and it seems to be running normally now, unfortunately I could not take it out due a series of thunderstorms that rolled through.

Thank you to everyone who gave advice in this thread. o7

 

With the recent events I have decided to keep a closer eye on my battery for the time being.

The battery reads 12.9 volts with the bike off.
With the key turned on it reads 12.5 volts.
With the engine on and idling about 12.6
5000 rpm it reads 16.8 volts.

What concerns me is the last number that seems kind of high. I believe I read somewhere that the voltage shouldn't exceed 15 volts.

Do I have to worry about overcharge here? or is it just reading higher due to a new battery?

 

You might look over the troubleshooting guide below and see if it helps you find a potential problem. I've never heard of it being 16.8 volts before. That seems very high.

Motorcycle Charging System Troubleshooting Guide

 

Thank you for the link. I followed the flow chart and my RR has failed the diode test. I ended up ordering a 04 gsrx R/R off ebay, hopefully that will set me straight. I'd like to be up and running again before spring break.

 

Welp the new RR came in today and after some trial by fire soldering I managed to get everything wired up nice. Its working like a charm, at 5000 rpm its charging at 14.7 volts. Time to ride.