I dumped my bike on the right side about 2 weeks ago, and ever since then the battery has a mind of it's own. Sometimes it'll fire up with no problems, holds 12.7 volts etc, etc. Then once in a while, I'll go to fire it up (when it has a good charge) and it'll lose all power when I hit the first crank (0.03 volts, no headlight). I can put it on the trickle charge for about a minute and it'll come back. I rewired the bars because they were bent anyway and found no pinched/nicked wires. Pretty sure the battery is smoked, just double checking before I shell out for a new one.

 

Check the battery cables and ground. It sounds like a lose battery cable.

 

They're tight. When I hooked it up to the battery tested it said "reversed polarity"

 

Sounds like one of the lead plates had dislodged and is shorting out in the battery. Try a different battery if you can before you by a new one

 

My wife's did the same thing. She tends to lay it down when she is parking or gets in loose gravel.

The battery cable had come loose and the heat had damaged the poles and trashed the battery.



Put a new one on and no problems since.

 

Black and decker makes a charger that realigns the plates. I have fixed several batteries with it.
I got it to try on my tractor battery, it was not keeping a charge. It took 48 hours to get it done but I saved $400 for a battery

 

Sounds like the plates are damaged. Have you had the battery load tested?

 

I just bought a new one, figured the plates were effed from dropping it