I've been having battery trouble for a few weeks now where it won't turn over after sitting for a period of time. It's gotten worse the last couple of days.
I still took it to work today thinking worst case I can always kick start it.

Well, I did kick start it to get going on my way home but the revswere stuttering big time. I tried to keep the revs high but about 10 minutes in I had to stop at a light and it just cut right out.

I rolled onto a side street and was able to kick start it again and made my way home without too much more trouble.

So..

Does this sound like it just needs a new battery?
Or could it be the alternator? I would think when my bike is running it should be ok if it was just the battery.

Please help!

 

Sounds like a fuel issue check and make sure that all the hoses are still connected to the tank... And your fuel pump.

 

The alternator is not too hard to test. Turn the engine on and after it starts running, put a voltmeter across the terminals of the battery. The voltmeter should read a voltage higher than 12V. I'm not totally sure about bike batteries b/c I am more familiar with cars. In a car, the base voltage of a battery is ~12 volts. The charging voltage is ~13.5 volts. So find the base voltage of your bike and the charging voltage (voltage while the engine is running) should be higher. Also, your bike might have a parasitic draw which means there is an electronic component on your bike that is drawing power while the bike is turned off which is making your batter dead. Easy way to test for a parasitic draw is to hook up an ammeter in series with the battery and check what the current draw is. You should also remove fuses for the ECU first. Be careful with the ammeter because hooking it up wrong will blow the fuse in the ammeter or the ammeter itself. Any other questions just ask.

 

Thanks I'll try to test my alternator this weekend and I'll see what kind of voltage it's putting out.

Regarding the parasitic draw, my battery was dead even after driving for 10 minutes so there couldn't be a draw that drastic could there?

 

I doubt there is anything that can kill your battery in 10 min. However, after you start your bike, the battery no longer provides the engine with electrical power that is all up to the alternator. You have to find out why your engine is dying. If it is dying due to an electrical problem then look at the alternator/battery. However, if your engine is dying due to a fuel issue than that is a totally different problem. When your bike dies, do all the lights and such turn off?

 

Sounds like bad fuel! clean your tank out too!! check your fuel filter too...Never know,,

 

I've spurred myself into motion and tested my battery and Alternator. There doesn't seem to be a problem

Strangely enough, my battery was totally fine and I was able to start my bike up. What the hell? It goes to dying on me to now being fully charged.

Battery Voltage (bike not running) - 12.92
Battery Voltage (bike running) - 14.42

So I guess it's intermittent power loss..

Help!

 

Maybe, but even if I had the worst fuel ever it wouldn't explain the bike not turning over and losing power (unless i'm missing something). It would explain the stuttering, but there seems to be something else going on

 

Could be that your battery connection was loose or just not making a good connection and was causing the problems initially. Then, when you dug in there for testing it you jiggled things enough to improve the connection. If the battery wasn't making a good connection it could easily cause the bike to die. If you've ever jump started the bike on a really dead battery you'll see that the instant you disconnect the jumper cables it dies. There needs to be some juice in the battery for the bike to run.

 

The bike can't run on the alternator power alone? That totally helps to explain what I am seeing.
I'm going to go over my connections and wiggle the cables a bit. It does sound like some sort of loose connection. I hope!