Another Ninja story..

[OtisBlkR1]

Well, talk about lucky.. This morning i got up and decided it was time to dump the oil out of the little Ninja 250, I thumbed the starter to get a little heat in the motor before i dump it and nothing.. and i do mean nothing, not even a "click click, click" so i put a set of cables on it and after a few moments i get it to fire up. It idles, but when you give it some gas it cuts out and the RPM guage is bouncing all over the place.. I shut it off and decide that the obvious bad battery is the culprit for these gremlins and i start calling around to see who's got the best deal. a $50.00 quote later and i have a battery in town with my name on it. Alas i have to go to work so the install wont be till tomorrow.

Who thinks this battery is the culprit ? The bike ran perfect after the valve adjustment, and i rode it to work yesterday with not so much as a hiccup.. however i did notice when i left from work that the bike starter a tad slower than usual, i came home and put it on the battery tenter all nite, green light this morning and nothing.. no start at all.

I will put the new battery in first thing tomorrow and update this post with the results.

2004 Kawaski Ninja EX250R

 

[ABerns]

So the green light on the tender was on right before you attempted to start the bike?

 

[OtisBlkR1]

Originally Posted By: ABerns
So the green light on the tender was on right before you attempted to start the bike?


Yeah, showing fully charged.. but the batter was dead..

 

[Falken]

You should buy a cheap multimeter and set it to 12v DC to see what the battery is at.

It should be around 12.6V if it is like a car battery. Then drain the battery for 20-30 SECONDS with the lights on the bike on, then turn everything back off, and if it drops drastically to like 4 volts the battery is exhausted and you need to buy a new one.

It should still read close to 12.6v.

Then you should read up on how to do a parasitic drain test on your bike, but you need to know the allowable amount of amps to see if it is in spec or not. This will let you know if anything is shorted out.

But, I don't know much about motorbike batteries, but a multimeter is very handy and very cheap, like 30$ on sale... a multimeter takes away a lot of common electrical mysteries but it is a bit of a hobby.

 

[va3ux]

A battery can die without warning, at any age. Open cell, sulfation - there's all kinds of reasons.

 

[OtisBlkR1]

i cant complain, its a 04 bike, so the battery's probably a 03 soatleast 8-9 years before it died ? i think i got my moneys worth

On a side note i enjoyed getting the R1 out of the garage and bringing it to work instead.. that things just Evil.. i love it

 

[OtisBlkR1]

Yup, replaced the battery and all systems were a go today.. AMAZING that the battery died like that.. I mean WOW, just up and died.. almost ZERO warning.

 

[sunruh]

ive seen batteries do that more often than i care too.

had an explorer, started it, moved it 50 feet, came back 2 hrs later and it would not even turn on the dome light. 1 cell completely dead shorted the rest.

my tacoma, drove it home and nothing 3 hrs later.
lady across the road had the same thing happen in her aztec.
co-worker in his rangerover, same.
2 years ago was TOUGH on batteries. those 3 all went out in 5 days of each other.

it just happens and brand/make/model did not matter. summer heat can just cook them dead.

 

[OtisBlkR1]

its a first for me.. Ive never seen one just go from starting fine to nothing.. but ive seen it now..

 

[OtisBlkR1]

WOW..

On the way out this weekend i got the big bike out (R1) and almost the exact same thing happend AGAIN... I got it town, shut it down while fueling and when i put the key back in it (((BAM))) it wouldnt turn over, just a little gurgle and then "click-click-click". A few buddie bump started me and i got lucky on a sunday and Batterys Plus had one it stock.. $92.00 i was back on the road.. but again, WOW.. two dead bike batterys in under two weeks.. AMAZING LUCK, so pretty much everything i own has gotten a new battery in the past 6 months, thats even more Amazing.. I guess when it rains it pours..