Hi everyone, well after a long winter here in wisconsin I decided I would try to fire up the 04 sporty a few weeks ago. I turn the ignition and nothing. Dead. No lights, no mileage, no anything. No big deal. I plug the battery tender in for a few nights and I check on it again. Still a red light on the tender. But I figured that since it was plugged in for 3 whole days that it should be fully charged so I unplugged it and ran it for about 5 minutes to make sure things worked. Ran beautifully. Then the weather got crappy and the bike sat for about 10 days unplugged from the battery tender. I go to start it up again and completely dead again. No lights or anything. The bike never ran in between "charges" so I figure either I have a dead battery or something is pulling charge from the battery while its sitting. I bought the bike a year ago and I remember the guy saying the battery was brand new then. Could be a lie but still. The battery tender was new a few months ago so I dont think thats the issue and the battery was bad at holding a charge last summer too but not this bad. I should be able to go more than 10 days from fully charged to fully dead. Replace the battery and go from there? Or is there some possibly some other problem?

 

Leaving a battery sitting dead isnt good, especially in cold weather. When you charged it for 3 days did the tender show it was fully charged. Have you checked all the connections on the battery?

 

After charging for three days the tender still had a solid red light. Which I thought was strange because it has worked in the past showing a solid green light after 5-6 hours of being charged. According to Battery Tender, solid red means its still charging, flashing green means 80% charged, and solid green is 100% charged. So I have no idea why after 3 days it was still solid red. I have not yet inspected all the connections and thats my plan this week. The bike was kept in a heated garage all winter so I don't believe temperature is the problem. Other than the terminals on the battery, where would be a good place to start inspecting?

 

dmellen, check both ends of the battery leads, not just the terminals. Theres probably nothing wrong with your tender as they are designed for maintaining a charge not for charging a dead battery (most tenders only put out around 1 amp). Get your battery fully charged and if it doesnt hold a charge have it load tested and go from there. When your bikes sitting leave it hooked to the tender 24/7

 

Battery is toast. Leaving it uncharged kills it. Theses battery's have to be on a maintainer when not in use otherwise it's life span is a lot shorter.

 

^^^ This. If you already had a battery tender, it should have been connected to the battery all winter, that's how it's supposed to be used.

 

There is no certainty that your battery was fully charged, from what you said about the red light showing. The whole purpose of a tender is to leave your bike connected up, so it monitors and charges your bike as required. So get into the habit of doing that, if you don't ride your bike for a couple of weeks at any time.

As for your battery at present, you can probably get it tested at a local auto parts store. If need be get a new one and look after the poor thing!

 

I think you have a bad battery. That's why the tender stayed red.

Pull the battery and have it load tested to confirm, but I think you're going to need a new battery.

 

Traditional Batteries:
* Lose more battery charge sitting when the weather is warmer.
* Uses much more of the battery charge to start the engine in cold weather than warm.
* A low charge provides less power than a full charge.
* Will not fully recover when allowed to die.

Newer Lithium- Ion Batteries:
* Can hold their charge for years with sitting.
* Do not perform well in cold weather.
* The power level remains the same no matter what the charge is.
* Can fully recover from dead, but has a limited number of charging cycles. Think of a cell phone battery u've had for years.

Your Motorcycle:
* Uses the battery to maintain the clock, radio presets, etc when the bike is off.
* Some accessories like USB adapters have a status light that can also drain the battery if the circuit is not switched off with the bike.

On a fully charged battery you probably could get away with a week or two between rides. Mine went dead after 15 days sitting last year and I will most like buy a new battery this year. I added an outlet in my garage near where I park it in the summer so I can have it on the tender all the time now.

 

I learned that lesson the hard way too, always bring your battery inside during the winter & put it on a tender.


check the running voltage too, sportsters are known to have **** stators than burn out too.