Hiya, I'm a new member here and I'm having some problems with starting my 2010 cbr r that I've had a little while now. Bless her, she's already been a bit of a reclamation project, has had a new battery, indicator, clutch handle, foot peg, wants a new full set of fearings and a new exhaust downpipe as it is currently a bit bodged but otherwise functional. Some of which is already on order!

The problem I'm having is that when I try start the bike, it won't turn over very well at all, taking a huge amount of time leaning on the button with the throttle open a touch, the starter sounds very weak and laboured, but this has some variance in it, sometimes sounding fine but still not firing, although this seems to indicate a faster pickup to starting. I've been having these problems over the last few days thinking it was due to my mainly short journeys too and from work with lunch breaks ect. not being long enough to recharge the battery properly. To counter this, I took it on a long ride and charged it at home. The battery was at 90% when put onto the charger after the ride, so it is charging while I ride, it just really struggles to get going, once its there its 0-100 and the bike jumps into life at full throttle. It fired first push after the battery charge, it fires better when the engine is hot and up until now has caused me no issues on this front as well as being charged while riding. I'm thinking the problem is somewhere between the battery, the starter and the alternator. I'm going to have a poke around for corroded terminals as it is an outside bike, but if anyone has any suggestions/ an idea of how I'd go about testing my theory, it'd be very much appreciated!
Many thanks
Alex

 

Hello Alex and welcome to the forum. When the bike is running right, you shouldn't need any throttle at all to start it. You've indicated a new battery, but when was that? How old is the battery? When the battery is fully charged, does it seem to struggle when turning over? You indicated the battery was at 90% when you put on the charger. How did you determine it was at 90% ? Did you measure the specific gravity with a hydrometer, or primarily a gut feeling?

 

Hiya, so it starts just fine after a charge on the battery charger, which showed it at 90%. Its when its been out that it seems to struggle, just now I'd had the battery on charge for about 5 moms when my dad rang saying he'd like to have a look at the symptoms, so I took it off charge, and just that seemed to do the trick. Started on the button straight away. However, the first time I did this, I tested it and it was the same; straight away, but by the next morning, it was struggling. I leave for work around half 3 in the morning, so its quite cold, the struggle seems to be more pronounced with a cold engine, but after a ride, even the petrol station stop had minor issues getting going again. It seems that first fire after a battery charge is enough to get it going, after that it is very difficult. However, it will turn for a good while, which kinda tells me it has to be charging, or else I'd get a couple journeys out the battery before the costs of ignition drained the battery dead.

before all this, it didn't require any throttle to start, but these last few days, its wanted some juice to get going after the first fire, then it springs to life, else it kind of splutters and doesn't want to do much.

 

Hi Alex, welcome to the forum as well.
It does sound like you have a charging issue which I imagine is what IDoDirt is also thinking and or these is an additional current draw / short that is draining the battery.
You need to start with testing the Rectifier / Regulator and the Stator to determine where the fault may lie.
Do you have a workshop manual?

 

Unfortunately I don't have a manual, I do have access to a multi meter, hopefully Google should provide the manual! Ill have a poke around and see what I can find. Thanks!

 

So are there any aftermarket electrical things like anti-theft or other things? It may be that you've got a parasitic draw on the battery. Some electrical thing that is continuing to run even when the bike is turned off.