went to start the bike this morning, everything as normal, fuel on, choke on, push the button and i get two really sluggish turn-overs then a clicking sound from the rear left side of the bike... lights on the dash go dim-
got to be the battery right?

thing is- i gave it 5 mins, went back and hit the buton and after a couple more lazy turn-overs it picked up a little life and slowy started (with a handfull of throttle)
bike was fine yesterday.. lights were as strong as ever...
just to be safe i rode most of the way to work with the lights off...
could this be an early sign of rectifier trouble?

also, noticed some weird flat spots at about 5k on 1/4 open throttle which also wernt there yesterday....

p.s. sorry for the noobness, but i gotta learn from somewhere

hello,
well i was once in your position and thankfully ive learnt a lot...

the clicking noise is the starter relay,this is when the battery is so low it cant produce enough power to turn the starter to crank the engine.
it definately could be signs of the reg rec going on its way out or even possibly the alternator.
when you finally got the bike going(just)and rode to work with the lights off and managed to reach work,im suprised you managed this if the reg rec was faulty because if the battery was so low it wouldnt have taken long for it to drain again but it depends on how far you had to ride.

you need to do a few checks....first of all remove the battery and fully charge it.
put the battery back on the bike and start the bike........you will need a multimeter for these checks,
with the multimeter turned to dc volts 20,check the voltage output at the battery @5000rpm
it should be between 13.5-15.5v and this is done with the lights off.
if the voltage drops instead of increasing then your reg rec is goosed,if for instance the voltage increases but only slightly,then the problem could lie within the alternator.this is the problem i had where i could run the bike for ages so long as i never used the lights because the battery was getting enough of a charge unless i used my lights and it was then draining faster than it was getting charged.


william

i really hope its not the charging system as the previous owner had all this replaced about 6 months ago... new rectifier, generator and battery.
surely if the battery wasnt getting a charge it wouldnt have started this morning?

I posted a thread a couple of days ago. Have a look at that, there is loads of good info on there. Its titled help!!!!!Do i need a new rectifier.

Good Luck
AL

just finished reading through your thread bridgey- how did yours turn out?
gonna buy a new battery and charger over the next few days anyways- tis good have have a spare-
just hope its not the rectifier or generator....

don't splash out on a new battery yet, it could just be that the old battery had run dead, or even somethign on the bike is draining it.

With the lights on the bikews gotta be running at around 5000rpm or more to have sufficient charge to top up the battery, shorter trips with the lights on are a surefire way to drain the battery quickley!!

For testing the battery...

Fully charge the battery and record the voltage after 3 hours.. leave it off the bike for a couple of days.. 3 should be fine and record the voltage, it shouldnt' have dropped much at all, my dead battery would fully discharge itself after 3 days.

IF the battery is still ok, recconect it up and do some diagnostics to the bikes electrical system.

firstly: check for current drain on the bike
Then check the reg-rec is giving out proper voltages and go from there.

cool- so looks like ill need to get myself a multimeter then
how do i check for current drain?

(thanks for all the help guys)

Worth pointing out that it was meant to be rather cold this morning and batteries really suffer in the cold.

Druid

twas fecking freezing this morning..... maybe that was it-
she did start after a while and seemed fine on the ride to work....

Smoky wrote:
surely if the battery wasnt getting a charge it wouldnt have started this morning?

thats where the problem could lie with the alternator,the same thing happened to mine where it was getting charged but not very well.....so long as i didnt use the lights.
to do the leakage test disconnect the negative lead from the battery terminal and connect the multimeter negative probe to the battery negative terminal and then connect the multimeter positive probe to the disconnected lead.the multimeter should be switched to amps for this and the ignition off.also set the high amps range high then work down to the ma range.
the leakage should not exceed 1ma max.


william