dumb question and not so dumb question

[joshf123]

This may seem silly... I feel kinda silly for even asking, but a friend of mine who has owned a bike for a while and seems fairly knowledgeable told me motorcycles don't have a charging mechanism for the battery. Maybe I didn't hear him right or I missed something, but it sounds like he is saying the battery starts the bike and powers lights and whatnot then once it drains you just have to charge it up on a charger or get a new battery. This sounds kind of ridiculous, but I just wanted to be sure because I ran into an electrical issue recently. I drove it about a mile to a friend's house and parked it for 5 minutes. I tried to start it up to leave and it made one short starting sound then did nothing. No lights, no sound from start button. I was convinced the battery died so I jumped it off and continued my ride. About another mile down the bike started missing. I eventually hard to park and have a friend come pick it up with his truck. The crazy thing about this whole situation is once we loaded the bike into his truck everything started working again as if nothing had ever happened. I have since driven it about 20 miles around town with no issues. May only guess is something came loose and got shaken back into place as we were loading the bike.

Other not so dumb question is what is the red line speed in 5th gear? I don't have a tac so I want to know when i'm pushing it too hard on the highway.

Thanks and sorry for the drawn out post :)

[JWR]

Yes, they have a charging system.
A short in the system???
WOT about 8,000 rpm's.

[blaine]

Check to see if cables are clean & tight at battery posts

[alanmcorcoran]

Quite a few people on here have had trouble with the sidestand kill (safety) switch. Do a search for how to check/troubleshoot faulty electricals/short in the sidestand switch - that is, if you have a GZ.

I think there was also one guy that had trouble with the red kill switch (contacts.)

Also, (if you have a GZ) it's generally considered to be nearly maxed out on the amperage and the forum's modders do not recommend adding anything that draws significant power. This includes higher wattage headlamps. I don't remember if anypne came up with a cost effective booster for the electrical circuit (there are several guys on here that like a challenge, even if it is economically or otherwise dubious.)

[alantf]

a friend of mine told me motorcycles don't have a charging mechanism for the battery. This sounds kind of ridiculous

It certainly is. I would be kinda inclined to not take any notice of anything he might tell you about bikes, in the future :whistle:

As for the redline - I wouldn't worry too much in 5th, as the bike'll run out of power before you do too much damage - with the caveat that other members have warned that you could cause damage if you rode like this ALL the time. Just remember that for the majority of your riding, the gz is happy at 55-60 mph. :2tup:

[Easy Rider]

Check to see if cables are clean & tight at battery posts

+1

Really sounds like a bad connection somewhere.
Check BOTH ends of the main battery cables.
Sometimes a battery will go open INSIDE the case too.
Also could be an intermittant ignition switch.

While the sidestand can be a problem, it won't make the lights go off.....and neither will the kill switch.

Oh.....and your "friend" isn't too sharp.
He shouldn't be giving advice.

[joshf123]

Thanks all for your input. Will update if I can pinpoint the issue in case others run in to this same problem. :2tup: