Today I am heading down to Lightspeed(a bike shop about 50miles away) from Ponchatoula because they got a Diablo with my name on it and I got some new chain and sprockets. Going down I-12 to Baton Rouge and get off on Sherwood(a highway) and stop at the Shell because my gas light is on. I fill up and my battery dies. Luckly, some dude was there had some cables and I get a jump. I start heading south and about 5 lights my bike dies at a red light. I pull into an empty bank, no one around, and walk across the street to the Racetrack. I ask them if they have the local PDs number I can call. Nope. I walk down the street some more into another store and get a phone book, write down the number, and start heading back to my bike to tell them what intersection I'm on. I get back to my bike and call the number and it doesnt work. Omfg. So some dude in the army pulls up and gives me a jump. I begin again, turn off onto Airline(another highway), and pass up Friendly(another bike shop that closes at 3pm and doesn't have anything I need). Well, I'm a half mile past Friendly and at a light where I die once again. I try calling them up...at 3:05pm. No one answers . A dude on a blue yammy pulls over and we try to bump start and it works for about 3 seconds. We push it into a dealership and the dudes in the shop wave me down. They hooked me up to a tender. Let it charge for about 15mins. This time I decide to head home after calling Lightspeed to see if they had a battery for me which they didn't. I prayed to god that none of the lights would be red before I got onto the interstate. God was good to me because they were all green. So, I though I was home free. Wrong. Denham Springs(town between Ponchatoula and Baton Rouge) comes up and some retard though it would be fun to drive into the median wall. Traffic is backed up for miles and I'm sitting there praying because my RPMs a jumping up and down. So, I decide screw this and I start lane splitting. Think my battery will still work if I get a tender? I left my bike on too long yesterday without running it and I thought the bike ride would charge it up nice and well but I guess it didn't. Its a fairly new battery and it wasn't cheap crap. I bought it back in July.

 

I doubt it's your battery.... sounds like you have a stator and/or rectifier/regulator issue. Being a Honda, there's a good chance it's the regulator (much like CCT's, Honda isn't exactly known for their great voltage regulators, lol). I'd have that checked out before replacing the battery.

I will ask this though... when you got the battery, did they charge it up fully before you put it in the bike? Cuz the initial charge sets the memory, and if it's taken off the charger before it's done charging, it's screwed

 

You sure it's your battery dying and not some other electrical issue? If you are .. to answer your question battery tenders don't do a whole lot for batteries that are already weak (they do help a little but not much), they are mainly good for prolonging the life of a new battery if you use it from the get go. It can't hurt to try it though since you need one anyway.

 

This is the battery I got. We put a voltage meter to it and it was the battery. It wasn't putting out much voltage when we had the bike off, like 6v.

 

Was that after charging it fully that it read 6v?? If so they yea, you got a couple bad cells. But if that's what it read right when you got back and you didn't charge it up, then of course it's gonna read that low cuz the battery IS dead, reason unknown. It could be the battery itself, it could be the charging system. Put the battery on a charger if you haven't done so already and let it fully charge, then go from there and test the battery and charging system. After getting it charged you might want to take the battery into just about any auto parts store and have them load test it. They should be able to do small batteries too. There's really no sure way to tell if the battery is truly good or no good without loadtesting it.... it can show 12v and still be no good

 

The 6v was befoer we charged it. After we charged it was reading 13v. We couldn't measure the amps. Its not the charging system because I ran down the battery myself when I left my bike on without realising it yesterday. I just tryed starting it after letting it sit for a few hours and it started prity good. Its sitting on the trickle charger right now though for the night.

 

Ahhh I C. But something is still wrong, whether it be the battery or charging system. If you were on the highway for a bit it should have charged back up fully regardless (it doesn't take that long to charge these lil batteries), and it didn't so either a) your battery is no good and isn't taking a charge, or b) you're charging system isn't working properly.

Believe me I have a bad habit of leaving my key on with the bike off... I've done it many times. I'd just bump start it and go on my way and the battery would charge right back up in no time. If everything was working properly, yours would have done just that. So something is still up. Keep an eye on it and see what it does, but don't be too suprised if it does this again. Just an FYI to keep in mind... voltage regulator issues can be an intermittent thing

 

Let me ask you this. Does the voltage regulator = regulator rectifier? Say if its not working properly such as when it gets too hot my idle rpms would fluxate.

Such as this.

 

nevermind........answered my own question.