My bike is a year old and has 12,000 miles. This morning after a PGR ride, the check engine and battery warning lights came on and stayed on but the bike seemed to run OK so I came home with no problems. Then later on I had to ride to the store (12 miles) to get parts for my truck. On the way home, the bike started sputtering and cutting out. The radio went dead and the bike died just as I pulled into my driveway (lucky). I checked the battery cables and they were clean and tight but the headlights were dim. I have it on the trickle charger now.

What gives? I ride almost daily so there's no reason a battery shouldn't be discharged or low. Bad battery? Something else draining it?

 

Disconnect the battery from the bike and charge it. Load test it if you can and see how it behaves. If it maintains a charge when not connected to bike, then the bike is the problem. Many times a battery will just plain break up inside or short itself out. It will refuse to charge up to full if this has happened.
Ron

 

Could be the battery, voltage regulator, stator or just a short draining the battery. You are under warranty so let HD fix it. Probably something simple.

 

Well the battery took a full charge so I guess I'll find out the hard way if it stays charged. If the stator isn't working, how long will a bike run on battery? The reason I ask is because I plan to ride to the dealer and I don't have a trailer. The dealer is about an hour ride by interstate.

 

Think your Stator is dead... happened to me last year. The bike with battery COULD run for 20 minutes, maybe more. Then the ECM will have no power anymore and will start to give problems. Try to check the stator, simply disconnect from the regulator and check if between the pins there is a voltage of 16-20 Volts every 1000 rpm.

 

...the Voltmeter shoul be set to AC!!!!

 

Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out!

 

Just as you thought... the stator went bad. Warante work for the dealer.