Dead new battery

[nhcop]

My bike has a brand new battery. I charged it over night and today it fired right up. I went for a 20 minute ride (which was great) and now the battery is dead. Need help. Something like the lights must be draining it while im riding. Sorry for being stupid, but what kind of charging systems do these bikes have when they are running???

[mrlmd1]

You didn't make the mistake of leaving on the rear parking light overnight, did you? It's one notch more on the key turning left farther than OFF. Many times this is not noticed when you leave the bike.
Charge up the battery again and see what happens.

[nhcop]

No I'm sure the light was off. Plus it was on the charger all night. I took it off the charger, went for a ride, came back home and its dead. I put it back on the charger and in 30 minutes my charger indicated it was fully charged.

[blaine]

Originally Posted by nhcop

No I'm sure the light was off. Plus it was on the charger all night. I took it off the charger, went for a ride, came back home and its dead. I put it back on the charger and in 30 minutes my charger indicated it was fully charged.

You may need to check charging system as it sounds like it's not charging.Is there a proper 55-60w bulb in headlight as one of higher wattage can kill battery.Someone else on here had that problem.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by nhcop

Sorry for being stupid, but what kind of charging systems do these bikes have when they are running???

Simple ignorance is not stupidity.

They have an alternator/rectifier/regulator system similar to what other vehicles have......just lower capacity......because the battery also has a lower capacity.

Several things could be happening here. First, I would suspect a loose connection....at EITHER END of the main battery cables.....because it should NOT discharge OR recharge that fast if the battery really IS good.

Second, what kind of a charger were you using ? A "tender" type charger is sometimes NOT good for a new batterys first charge.

Just for curiosity, what kind of battery did you get......and where did you get it ? I think the stock ones are AGM and are kind of pricey. It could be a bad new battery but the odds are against that.

Do you have a multi-meter ? If not, do you know anybody who does ?
Depending on where you bought the battery, "they" might check it out for you, no charge, so to speak !! :roll: (but you would need to get the whole bike to them)

[nhcop]

Funny you mention the headlight. It is the factory bulb but when I got the bike all the wires inside the headlight had been cut. I spliced all the wires back together. Must be headlight related

[blaine]

Originally Posted by nhcop

Funny you mention the headlight. It is the factory bulb but when I got the bike all the wires inside the headlight had been cut. I spliced all the wires back together. Must be headlight related

I would double check all your splices again as most main wires run through the headlight.All splices should be soldered and shrink-wrapped.

[mrlmd1]

If you had a short in the headlight bucket, you probably would have blown a fuse.
You may have wired up something wrong that is always drawing juice and drained the battery even though the key is OFF. You have to check your wiring against the wiring diagram.
And after you fully charge it up again with a 2 amp charger,. bring it back to the dealer you bought it from and get it load tested, that is the only way to see if it is any good.
You can easily test the charging system of the bike by getting it started (jump it from another 12V battery, like from a NON-RUNNING car) and measure the voltage at the battery terminals with a voltmeter at about 3000 rpms.

[nhcop]

Originally Posted by Easy Rider

Several things could be happening here. First, I would suspect a loose connection....at EITHER END of the main battery cables.....because it should NOT discharge OR recharge that fast if the battery really IS good.

Second, what kind of a charger were you using ? A "tender" type charger is sometimes NOT good for a new batterys first charge.

Just for curiosity, what kind of battery did you get......and where did you get it ? I think the stock ones are AGM and are kind of pricey. It could be a bad new battery but the odds are against that.

I will check all the connections tomorrow.
The charger is a full charger that does both 12V and 6V. I charged it on 12V and the 2 amp setting.
As far as the battery, it was purchased at Wal-Mart by the guy I bought it from a week before buying it.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by nhcop

Just for curiosity, what kind of battery did you get......and where did you get it ? I think the stock ones are AGM and are kind of pricey. It could be a bad new battery but the odds are against that.

As far as the battery, it was purchased at Wal-Mart by the guy I bought it from a week before buying it.[/quote]

OK, how about the NEXT one that you have now......also a replacement from Wal-Mart ??
Does it have removable caps where you can add water ??

AND.....now that it has been determined that the first new battery was in fact bad.......you should not ASSume that there is yet another problem, like in the wiring in the headlight. Let's see how the second new battery performs first.