02 F4i, original battery.

It's not holding a charge in b/w rides (which right now is probably a week). I'm pretty sure it's the original battery....bike has 15.4k miles. Is 5-6 years a pretty typical life, or am I just not charging it enough when riding (i just got the bike, and I literally haven't taken it over 6000 rpm's). I'll jump the bike with my battery charger, then idle around the neighborhood, or go on a quick drive, then come back and put up....1 week later the motor will turn over too slowly to fire.

Is it true thealternator really won't charge below 5000 rpm's?? I think when I cruise in 6th at 55 my rpm's are in the 4k range!

 

You'll need to adjust it for your bike but this will be helpful:
http://cbrworld.net/forums/thread/140473.aspx

 

the manual said that the battery is charged at 1500 rpms, no? did i forget something or mis-read something?
brand new battery on ebay is 50 bucks, worth the investment.

 

get a new battery

 

I think I will get a new one day (and follow the proper charge up procedures). I've got a (my first) track day coming up in 2 weeks and this will be one less thing to worry about. If nothing else I'll keep this one as a spare.

 

5000rpm and up is needed for the alternator/rectifier to kick up.

I had the same problem. Dead battery, charged it, barely took it past 5000rpm, a week later it was dead again.
So charged it once again, take it past 5000 regularly, now she's fine. I have an '02 with 9500 miles and original battery.