As the regulars will know, earlier this week, I had a puncture on the blade, resulting in lost riding time and £30 for the repairs.. Well today, as the sun was shining warm in the sky, I put the now repaired wheel back on. Wheeled the bike out of the shed, got fully kitted up.. Turned the key And nothing..not a light, a glimmer or a twitch of the rev counter.. Lithium battery...flat as a supermodels chest... FFS !! So wheeled the bike back in, kit back off and plugged in the optimate.. 10 hours later still flat battery and the optimate is telling me the very expensive lithium is FUBAR'd It's only been on about 2 months, but it seems the discharge on the bike has killed it, was only off the charger 2 days. That's the 4th battery this bloody bike has ruined, it's starting to get to be rather a money pit in that respect. And to rub it in the PCv arrived today, so I can fit it, but cant even test it to make sure it works or ride the bike to see if it's doing its thing...
No, I did have a Datatool on it but took that off after battery #3 before the Lithium went in.. There's obviously a parasitic drain somewhere...I did try to pin it down before, but found nothing.. Fitting a battery isolator, like they use in rally cars etc, so I can switch the lot off everytime I park the bike up.
What make was the battery? If only 2 months old it should still be under warranty so I would give the retailer a call
What make was the battery? If only 2 months old it should still be under warranty so I would give the retailer a call
It's a Shido....just trying to locate the receipt now...looks like the weekend is screwed for any playing out...
Is there a T missing from the make ?? sorry about but check charger and also give the battery a shake......PCB internally compnants might have come loose...... wont sort it but might help determine issues ? Right charger ? as suitable for lithium ????
It's an Optimate and appears to be working fine. I didn't have the bike on the charger for the past 2 days as I forgot to plug it in as the tyre was out getting fixed...rushing about.. In fact, thinking about it..less than 2 days...16.00hrs Wednesday till 08.30 this morning...40hrs to kill a fully charged battery...that takes some doing.
I had same thing, charger looked like it was working ok but turned it it wasn't. If u got volt meter just check the out put
I imagine the charger must be working as previous times when I've got the bike out and unplugged it the bike has started fine. There is a parasitic drain somewhere, I thought it was the clocks or something the clocks were feeding last time I investigated. Like I said, I'm fitting this isolator, the only downside is that I'll have to set the time etc on the dash each switch on..
As others have alluded to, I think that you have had two separate issues. The first being that the first few standard batteries have been killed by lack of use and the alarm probably, I know my last bike fitted with a Datatool would kill a new battery in two-three days. You've then fitted a lithium battery but attempted to keep it trickle charged with a non suitable charger, hence its screwed.
The trickle charger is a lithium charger... Left it on charge all night last night and this morning it seems to have revived it as the charger was showing fully charged. Also the battery has a test light on it and that showed good to go too....so thats quite the relief Just finishing the installation of the battery isolator switch, then put the bike back together.
I thought the whole idea of Lithium was that you didn't need to trickle charge them? they hold their charge much longer than L/A batteries, in fact in my R/C helicopters you can over charge Li-Po batteries and makes them useless, although they are Lithium Polymer and not Lithium Ion ? so are the Ion's different? http://www.powerstream.com/li.htm
Might just be me, but does sound like those folk who have fitted these new fangled lithium batteries have more problems than the old tech heavy weight lead based originals.
The thing is with my bike it already had/has an underlying battery drain issue, so an Optimate charger is a must just to keep pace with the drain. My bike has got through 3 lead acid batteries previous, however, I have now fitted one of these So each time I park the bike up, click goes the big red switch and cuts all power..so no more drain
How about one of THESE Selling on US amazon for about $100 Not sure about availability in the UK tho. Uses a remote signal like a flick of the brake light switch to switch back on the battery
