Battery Life

[Ryland3210]

I have been using nothing but Yuasa batteries for decades.

 

Self discharge is a fact of life, but I have observed that the battery discharge is much faster on my Guzzi than my Yamaha.

 

I monitor the battery voltage at least once a week during the winter or any other time the bike is not being run for a couple of weeks. I find it simple to monitor, since I have a heated clothing receptacle to connect to. My experience is that the Guzzi requires recharging with a battery tender about every two weeks on the Guzzi. It is important to recharge it before it drops below 50% charge. In rough numbers (they vary with temperature), 100% charge is 12.65 volts, 0% charge is 11.65 volts. The voltage must be measured several hours after the engine is shut off to eliminate the "surface charge", which causes the battery to read higher voltage than what represents the actual state of charge. I usually wait overnight, or run the headlights for a few minutes after stopping the engine to accelerate the discharge of the "surface charge", if I want to know right away. Measure the voltage with the ignition and lights off, however.

 

My practice is to recharge anytime the voltage drops below 12.4. If there is only a conventional charger available, one can calculate how many amp-hours are needed to recharge the battery and do it by time. The charging current should not exceed 10% of the amp hour rating of the battery. For example, my Yuasa is a 15 amp hour unit, so I keep the charge current under 1.5 amps.

 

Oh, one other thing: I use a "smart" battery charger, but do not keep it continuously connected. My preference is to eliminate any risk of overcharging the battery, which can also reduce capacity, by only charging when it is needed.

 

Once a battery is heavily discharged, even a long ride may not fully recharge it. For example, a 15 amp hour battery will require 1.5 amps charging current for 11-12 hours to recharge. When riding, the regulator maintains constant voltage, so once the battery accepts some charge, it will absorb less current at the regulated voltage, so it could well take 24 hours of non-stop riding to fully recharge. Better to use a charger and voltage tests to see where you are.

 

Hope this helps. My Yuasa's have typically lasted several years.

[dlaing]

Took advice from these pages and bought a hawker two years on it's #@$&@#@ but the original (02) spark battery is still going strong, explain that

Luck of the draw???

You may have noticed the nearly identical external construction of the Hawker Odyssey PC545 and the Spark 500.

My guess has always been that the Spark 500 is a rebadged Hawker Genesis.

The Odyssey offers superior vibration resistance compared to the Genesis because the Odyssey has thicker plates, but I would not be surprised if there is a compromise made, like maybe the Genesis may have more plates, or more acid, and if the vibration does not kill the battery, the Genesis should last longer. (or the Spark 500 if identical)

But we may never know for sure.

My Spark 500 lasted over four years and was probably killed by bad connections.

I replaced it with an Odyssey that lasted about a year, and died, probably because of the same bad connections, or a bad regulator.

My current Odyssey is going strong at two and a half years. I hope that with regular use of the Odyssey Optimizer, and more attention to my charging system, it will last many more years. It better because the price keeps going up.

[dhansen]

I just replaced the original Sparky on my '01 this spring. It was never on a charger (though I did try this spring) and always fired the bike after the winter's rest. We'll see what the Odyssey does now.