Just thought I would get that out there to save the flaming. I know there are tens of hundreds of posts on this topic but I wasn't able to find what I was looking for. It is the dead of winter here in michigan (makes you wish you were were more interested in the "hardcoresledder" board than the CBR board but what can you do) and I need to get my battery charged and keep it charged.

To the point, I tried to start my bike a couple of months ago and not to my surpriseit was completely dead. I know it is my batterybecause thissort of thing has happened before but last time I had to buy a new battery (please don't make me do that again). I don't know what is the best charger to use to get my battery back up to par so that it will start my bike again.The only posts that i have readtalk about trickle chargers but they are used for when your battery is already charged, right? If you could help I would appreciate it.

Thanks,
Noob

Also, Iride an '04 F4i, when I bought the replacement battery for itthe guy told me that I hadto buy this WAY expensive battery ($130) because of high performance or something (cant remember,8 months ago). Did I just get completely screwed?

 

Go to your dealer andlook fora Battery Tender (actual name), that's the one I've got. You can get it in the normalor junior size, which I use. Costs about $30 for the junior.

 

the battery tender will bring it up to where it is supposed to be AND keep it there? cool, thanks.

 

Just so you know, once the battery is 100% charged, you can store it in the garage for the durration of the winter and it will not need a charge.

Yuasa (assuming the battery is still stock) says that when 100%, a battery kept at 32*F (0*C) will only loose about 10% of it's total charge in a period of 6 MONTHS. Higher temperatures produce higher rates of self discharge.

 

the best thing that you can do is to charge your battery and un hook it and dont try to start your bike in the winter you will only do more harm than good. you could also get a battery tender probably at your local parts store and plug it in and forget it this will charge your battery when it is low and leave it alone when it is not im a tech at a chevy dealer in northern michigan and we have installed these on sports cars that sit alot and they work good but for my bikes just un hook them and leave it alone until spring

 

The Battery Tender is a type of trickle charger. There are quite a few brands to choose from. You can leave them hooked up for a long time. I found a trickle charger worth its weight in gold! It has allowed me to get a lot more use out of my batteries. It gets really expensive to replace $80 batteries everyspringfor jet skis, quad, bike, ect. Now my batteries last for at least three riding seasons. I should have gotten one a long time ago!![/align]

 

My local Honda stealership wanted $109. I went to a place called Batteries Plus, and got one for $79, and it looks identical but I haven't put it in yet. They tested my old battery and they said it was putting out 12.8 volts (fine) but only 79 cold cranking amps (CCA), so I needed a new one. It was original to my 02 F4i