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How long can your Bike sit before battery dies?

47K views 38 replies 18 participants last post by  Nico 
#1 ·
Hello everyone

i started working on my bike on friday of last week. and i have left it off since thursday night. so far its been sitting for 6 days straight without turning it on.

is it normal for my battery to have drained? it wont start up. Going to look for some kind of charging system for the battery. just looking for some opinions or people with similar issues.
 
#2 ·
what kind of work were you doing? It's not normal for a battery to drain that quickly. I've gone a month without starting my bike and it turned over with no problem. How old is the battery? Consider getting a battery tender if you let the bike sit for long periods of time. I have this one for my car but it works for motorcycles too https://www.google.com/shopping/product/4008074566262568911?q=battery%20tender&hl=en&sqi=2&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&biw=1280&bih=623&sa=X&ei=-o5SUei0B9Xj4AOS74CQBw&ved=0CGkQ8wIwAg
 
#3 ·
Ambient temp will greatly influence that. Motorcycle batteries are small and last about 5 years max with really good maintenance. A battery tender is super cheap and easy to put on, I recommend it for everyone with a traditional lead-acid battery.

Autozone (or your local parts store with a battery tester) can load test the battery for you, so you can know for sure if the battery is still good or not.
 
#5 ·
my bike sits 5-6 months out of the year. Get a battery tender if you are going to be doing any work on your bike.

What kind of work were you doing on your bike? Starter? Lighting?
If you were doing something that uses power, it wouldn't surprise me if you drained the battery. If you were doing something that didn't use any battery, then your battery is possibly bad.

A week shouldn't drain your battery. My bike sat for a month and a half without it's battery tender while I was moving, started up 1st try
 
#7 ·
My bike sat for most of the winter and started without a problem. I know some people keep their batteries on trickle chargers to keep them at full charge but I've never done that. Slow charge your battery to a full charge and see how long that lasts. If it doesn't hold a charge for long I would suggest replacing it. Batteries can go bad after a while of normal use and certain batteries can have their charge capacities reduced if they are completely drained.
 
#9 ·
Thanks for all the input guys, I removed the side fairings and the front headlight fairing. Im upgrading to HID's and i am also replacing the headlights themselves since they are cracked. I also have to replace my fork seals, Breaks and Air filter. so i figured i'd let the bike sit until the parts come in. i went back down to start it up (because it thought the battery might be dead . turns out the bike doesnt do anything when i turn the key. YEs, i probably disconnected something. will have to double check everything
 
#15 ·
Starting a bike eats the battery pretty good, you need about ~5 minutes of engine load above 4k RPMs to 'get' that charge back - an idling bike doesn't run the stator fast enough to charge a battery. Months of it sitting plus those starts can very well kill a battery. If one of the 3 internalized cells has failed, it won't have enough amps to turn the engine. The charger will think the battery is full since it has charged the remaining cells (I think.)
 
#21 ·
Okay, if it clicks when you touch the starter, and the gauges and fuel pump come on, then I don't think it's wiring or the switch, it's just that the battery doesn't have enough juice to actually turn the starter motor. Autozone *should* have load tested it, and if this is happening it should fail that test. If you have a multimeter, you could confirm the volts while sitting and while starter, which would help narrow it down. My best guess right now is that the battery is bad (especially since you told me you've had it on a charger today already.)
 
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