is it bad...

to constantly recharge your battery?

since my charing system isnt working to hot right now i was wondering if it would be ok to recharge my battery every couple days. The bike will run on a fully charged battery for at least two-three days, after that its pure luck if it starts. So i was thinking i could still use it and just charge it over night.

Any words of caution?

Get yourself a battery tender. My bike is always hooked up to it (when I'm not riding). I gat a Schumacher brand one from Wallyworld for around $12. when the battery is fully charged it automatically switches into maintenance mode. It also comes with a set of clamps and a lead you can connect to your battery permanently. The other end just hangs out. Park the bike, plug her in, forget about it.

Just use a trickle charger or batter tender, you don't want to charge it at too high of a rate. Have you checked all of your connections in the charging system?

The Milkman wrote:

Just use a trickle charger or batter tender, you don't want to charge it at too high of a rate. Have you checked all of your connections in the charging system?

I completely agree.

And if all of your bikes connections check out OK and you decide to use a trickle charger until you can tackle the charging problem, be sure to keep an eye on the battery fluid level - every time you re-charge it would be the perfect time to do this.
I'm sure you already know that you should only add distilled water to top it off, not regular tap water or battery acid.

sweet, thanks guys. tomorrow its time to unleash the beast! i've got a 1 amp charger, would it be better to use the 6 volt setting or the 12v?


really? :blink: to top it off i shouldn't use battery acid? why? i havent had to refill it yet, it all looks ok.

squints wrote:

sweet, thanks guys. tomorrow its time to unleash the beast! i've got a 1 amp charger, would it be better to use the 6 volt setting or the 12v?


really? :blink: to top it off i shouldn't use battery acid? why? i havent had to refill it yet, it all looks ok.

1) 12 volt setting, 1 amp should be good.

2) I don't top off with battery acid because the battery manufacturer and other people that spend alot of time worrying about that stuff tell me not to. In other words, I trust their judgement.

Dont wanna freak nobody out but those chargers can be dangerous. a guy and his girlfriend was burned to death because of one of those chargers. Burned the house to the ground with them in it.

#1 on the Shumacher charger at walmart, it works for me.

I just bought a new battery and you fill it first, let it set an hour, charge it at 10% of battery amp rating (usually 1 - 1.5 amps) and then refill it with acid IF needed to bring it back to the full line.

Always use distilled water to refill a battery, never add acid after the initial fill(s).

violentvintagecycles wrote:

Dont wanna freak nobody out but those chargers can be dangerous. a guy and his girlfriend was burned to death because of one of those chargers. Burned the house to the ground with them in it.

Bet the family wishes the smoke detector battery was charged. :whistle:

squints wrote:

...really? :blink: to top it off i shouldn't use battery acid? why?....

Here's the reason.

Battery fluid is composed of water and sulphuric acid.
The mixture is of a specified strength (ratio of acid to water).

Loss of battery fluid is from evaporation.
Only the water evaporates. The acid does not evaporate.

So as the water evaporates the remaining fluid actually becomes progressively more acidic.

Refilling with distilled water replaces the water lost by evaporation (no acid was lost by evaporation) and restablishes the correct ratio of acid to water).

If you raise the fluid level by adding acid instead of water, the resulting mixture will be too strong (i.e., overly acidic).

As known, most grocery stores carry distilled water in gallon jugs. Very inexpensive.

squints wrote:

to constantly recharge your battery?

If you do this, you will wear out your battery very fast. Don't ask me how I know this...

I would look at the underlying problem, and fix it. Might cost you a bit of time and frustration but in the long run it might be better than just patching it up with a charger.