please tell my i have a crap battery.... i bought this thing last month and the guy says he put in a new one. the guy was kinda a dunce... does that sound like a battery issue or am i looking at a crappy time ahead of me?

please tell my i have a crap battery.... i bought this thing last month and the guy says he put in a new one. the guy was kinda a dunce... does that sound like a battery issue or am i looking at a crappy time ahead of me?

Could be something simple like a bad earth.

Go to a bike shop and ask them to perform a battery test, should be free.

or (sigh, (the crappy time option, sorry))

The bike has a multi stage alternator, which kicks in and out depending on how much power you need. I would ask someone to check this if its not your battery. Do you have trouble with anything else lowering the current when you use something else?

Best of luck!

Yep, check your 'leccy system.

There are little gadgets that test the whole charging system. Most mechanics have one of some sort.

Ideally you want the battery fully charged before it gets tested.

Once that's OK, you also want a guaranteed good battery to test the system.

Or you can do it all yourself with a multi-meter.

However you do it - Check/replace the cheapest parts first.

At idle the charging system is at it's weakest so you will see a dimming of lights when you have the brake light on, headlight up and are using a blinker. It should not dim too much.

Using a meter you should have 13.8 volts or more at 3000 rpm across the battery. Less than that and you could have a bad stator, a bad voltage regulator, or bad connections between them all. I would look at bad connections, old bikes are famous for crappy brass connectors that are covered in oil. The regulators are decent on most bikes but the stators can break down in the oil or just from age, The wires from the stator get pinched and the insulation wears off from oil. I had one leg of the stator rubbing the engine case and it damaged the headlight diode. Also the field coil that creates a magnetic field for the stator might be weak, I had a bad wire on that too.

So the rule is to take time and check the wires and connections visually, use a meter to see what you really have, and then attack the problems you find. There isn't a short cut really. A new battery is a tell tale sign of charging system problems, I have a 4 year old battery and it still works fine on mine.

i checked the batt. its around 11 volts and has close to no acid in it.

ok. now filled the battery to proper amounts. its holding 12.75- 13 volts.

bike at idle - 11.somthing volts

hold a rev - climbs to 14 + volts.