My lady friend who has a 95 883 Sporty has yet another dead battery.

She does not ride much at all. Would rather get on the back.

So the bike sits in the shed for long periods of time.

I charged up the battery for her a couple of months ago and took the bike out on the highway to get some high RPM's through the stator.

Well, she tried to start it the other day and the battery was dead as a doornail and wouldnt take a jump. She brought it to Autozone for them to check it. They said it's had it.

That only got a couple of years on it and it has not really been used much.

Do they go dead from just sitting without a trickle charge? I wouldnt know because I ride year round.

 

Yes. My bike is on the tender whenever I'm not riding...like right now. In fact, if you look closely in my sig pic, you can see the tender plugged into the wall.

 

Connected? Yes. If connected while on the bike, always keep them on a battery tender to extend their life.

Wife makes fun of me saying that we have electric bikes since I always connect them to the battery tenders when I put them back in the garage...

 

I think her 1995 has an electronic speedo, so it will draw some current to maintain the odo settings even when bike if turned "off." Lead acid batteries will lose charge over time as well. She can get a Shorai Lithium battery and it will hold a charge much longer. Or, get a new conventional battery and purchase a tender too.

John

 

You will find opinions on both sides of the issue. Most bike batteries are 'sealed lead-acid' type batteries. New, they can be stored for quite a while without harm, over time, the cells will degrade and will benefit from being put on a tender.

It's not necessary to have it on a tender all the time. If you ride regularly and there is no circuit leaking current on your bike(extra lights, security system, etc) you can get away with a recharge just by riding your bike every so often. If you plan on storing over an extended period(a few months or more) plan on using a tender.

Here's a good read for the geeks like me among us: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead–acid_battery

 

YES.
The average veh battery will lose 1% of its charge
per day if just sitting there.

 

Yes for sure.

A sure way to reduce the life span of a Harley Battery is by either leaving it sitting without a trickle charger or over charging it with a cheap charger.

 

If I dont expect to be on the bike for more than two days or so I attach the battery tender.

 

I plug in my bike every night. If not maintained the battery will have a very short life span.

 

Looks as if we are all agreed on this! I have several vehicles and they are all on a tender if not about to be used. Encourage your lady friend to buy a decent AGM battery plus a tender (NOT a trickle charger - that's a quite different thing). My best battery life, using a tender, is over ten years and I recently replaced an eight year old battery.