Battery Dead After 7 Days?

Last week the wonderful kzrider forum people helped me get the right battery in my bike but the battery is now dead after 7 days.

I installed the battery, it worked like a champ, I was so excited, and then yesterday it wouldn't turn over my engine at all. Other things like the lights worked fine but not the push button start (luckily I have a kick start).

Another strange note is that when I rev the bike all the lights dim (some even turn off, then come back on when the revs come back to about 1k). What does this mean?

Anyone know where I should start? Is this just faulty connections or a sign of a bigger issue? Is my battery dead because of a short somewhere or bad wiring?

You need to take a Volt Meter and check the voltage across the battery terminals when running. First at Idle, then at 4K RPM.
Recharge your new battery first, at a slow rate. You may have a bad connection, from the stator to R/R or from the R/R to the battery/ electrical. How is the battery cable connections? As these are important, is the negative cable clean and tight, both ends? Also check your fuses, for lose/ bad connections at the fuse clips and possible lose fuse internal. The glass fuses over heat and come lose at the cap.

Thanks, I will take a look at those tonight.

If you do not find any loose or corroded connections you will need to test your bike's charging system as described in the Kawasaki Service Manual. When you rev the engine the coils fire more often as the revs increase, so they are drawing more of the available electrical power. If the charging system is not functioning properly and cannot keep up with the additional load the lights will dim. As Motor Head pointed out, poor connections can also create these symptoms, so check those first. When you charge your battery use a charger that produces 2 amps OR LESS. Charging at a higher rate will shorten the battery's life. Ed

So this week I went through all the connections, cleaned them with deoxit, and put them back together.

Yesterday I ran all the charging diagnostic tests I could find (manual and online). The final conclusion is that there is a short "somewhere" in my harness. I have a couple places I think may be suspect due to crunchy wires, but I may just re-wire the entire harness.

We will see what happens in the next few days.