Monday Morning Tech Tips: Brace Yourselves, Winter is Coming

Modern motorcycles are wonders of technology and gadgets. Ride by wire throttles, ABS, cruise control, GPS, and satellite radio—and they all need juice to run. The battery lives deep in the center of every motorcycle, and it’s one of the most important components.

Your motorcycles electrical does significantly more work than systems  installed five years ago, and the battery is an integral part of that. Gone are the days when a weak battery could eek out that last start. Some motorcycles need exactly 12 volts or higher to even get the electrical system to wake up.

We’ve already discussed how to keep your battery charged and operating at optimum capacity before in this article, so this week’s “Tech Tip” is more of an explanation as to why a battery works harder and loses charge faster in the cold.

First, the basics.

Current generated by a battery is produced when you connect the positive and negative terminals. When the terminals are connected, a chemical reaction is initiated that generates electrons to supply the current of the battery. Lowering the temperature causes chemical reactions to happen more slowly, so if a battery is used at a low temperature then less current is produced than at a higher temperature. As the batteries run down they quickly they reach the point where they cannot deliver enough current to keep up with the demand. If the battery is warmed up again it will operate normally.

So next time you go to start your motorcycle and there is not enough power. Bring the battery inside and let it warm up—at room temperature—and then reinstall it. You might be able to get the bike started.

What other tips and tricks do you have? Comment below or in the forums.