Old(ish) bikes, lights, and battery upgrade questions.
 

So I have a relatively old '95 CBR600.
I know bikes this age don't have the best electrics, but it's at the point where sitting at idling at 1500rpm with the main beam lights on isn't enough to keep the alternator spitting out more than 12.5v. (I have a voltmeter attached, sometimes it reads as low as 11.8v. When I'm at cruising speed it's a healthy 14-15.1v. It's worst if sitting on a hill in the dark at a junction (ie idling, main beam + brake lights + indicator). Now yes, I can manage this by keeping the throttle at about 2000rpm when idling, but I'd rather not.
In addition, I'd like to reconnect my heated grips that are currently disconnected because of this, and maybe add a couple of other accessories.

SO my question is. Can I upgrade parts or all? ie, could I just stick a much higher ampage battery in there (I really don't care about a few extra pounds weight, I'm not racing it). Or should I be upgrading the stator or r/r (have already upgraded the r/r because the stock one is useless.
I know I could also fit LED bulbs, but what is best?
Anybody who knows electrics would be very much appreciated. Basically - I know big tourers and modern bikes don't have such a big problem, so what exactly is the difference, and what can I replace/upgrade to effectively have a modern, accessory-compatible electrical system? (without frying existing cabling!)

Many bikes don't really put out more than 12/13v at idle. Make sure you are checking voltage with your (good quality) battery already at full charge.

As long as you're hitting good voltage, under load, somewhere just off idle, you should be fine. Many don't hit 14v+ till 2-3k rpm. The book on my 900, IIRC, shows full output to be at like 5k rpm. :)

You 'could' order a voltage reg/rec from someone like Ricks Electric with the charge/RPM curve set different if you really wanted.

That's exactly what I'm curious about. At what point do I cross from 'it's an old bike, deal with it' to 'this is a problem'. I wouldn't expect it to kick out full voltage below about 3k but I am fairly sure that I shouldn't need to cut the lights when sitting at a red at idle (1.5k) just to stop the voltage dying.

Haven't heard of them, will look into that. Presumably there's a downside, or else all the OEM parts would have a higher output at idle?

Thanks!

How long do you let it idle for? If it's long enough to drain the battery, you will be having overheating and oiling issues before the battery goes dead.

These bikes are designed to be moving at high RPMs.

The downside is if you spend a lot of time at idle, you're constantly overcharging battery.

The bottom line is you just need to install the accessories you are interested in little by little, and verify that the reg rec and stator are able to keep up. Then either stop or start upgrading. :-)

However long the lights stay red for. It's not like I sit and wait around town, but it's not uncommon to get caught in several red lights or in stop-start traffic for quite a while.

It's not enough to *drain* the battery, but it's enough that it is *draining* the battery, which can mean it doesn't have enough juice to kick over the starter sometimes.

If there are no lights on, the bike would quite happily sit still or in traffic at idle for hours and never have overheating problems.

Ah, that makes sense. I think I would have to start by upgrading something first, as it doesn't cut it at the moment with just headlights. Somebody suggested LEDs to me, I might try that.