Hey guys,

I have a 2006 F4i with about 7000 miles on it. I kept the battery in my bike all winter w/o trickle charging it and sure enough it was completely drained by spring (indoors but not temperate controlled). I know! I've trickle charged it many times over but it seems unable to hold a charge. It's a year old premium battery.

- Voltmeter test shows about 12.6V when fully charged.
- When in circuit at 5000 RPMs, the voltage reads about 13.88 - 14.0V.
- When I ride it for more than 45 mins, the engine starts to die.
- But if I let it rest for a few minutes, the battery recharges itself and I'm able to get another 30 mins out of it. If the battery is bad, how could this be?
- When it starts to die, the bike becomes jerky and eventually stalls. The last 30 mins after stalling are extremely jerky and the engine seems to backfire a lot.

Is it a bad battery or some issues with ECM perhaps? Please advise. I'm going to get it load tested but I don't want to miss the awesome weather..

 

1 Bad battery
Sounds like a dead cell

 

+1 on a dead battery....

But engine dies after riding for 45min sound odd? Cause even with a dead battery, you would assume a good Stator + R/R would keep bike running..... I would check those too....

So you'll need a new
Battery anyway, why not just get a new battery first and see how
Bike runs?

 

you can't test a battery with a multi-meter. :\ But, it not the battery.
is your bike overheating?
If not, check to see if the connectors to the battery is properly tightened.
check the connector to the pulse generator.
check your spark plugs.
Check the alternator.

also, is your gas fresh?

 

i think your RR is failing. 13.88v at 5k rpm seems a little low.

 

Thanks for the replies guys, this really helps! I took it to a mechanic this weekend and he said the battery is fine. He was fully packed till Friday but he took 2 minutes to load test it and said it's fully charged.

Another thing I noticed that when it stalls it starts right back up. Also, this time it stalled within 5 minutes of riding so I'm not sure it's overheating related.

I'll test the RR and report back. Do you guys still think its a charging system issue or something to do with ignition module?