I wouldn't look for a tip from anyone other than the good folks here in the Audio section.

Went to take my wife out for an evening ride, we had planned on heading off to look at some christmas lights around metro detroit and I didn't make it 15' down the driveway. It just cut out.

I'm diggin in to try and isolate the issue, but volt meter on the dash is showing the battery does not seem to be holding a charge. I'd been out Saturday and Sunday, and there were no issues at all.

When i'm riding regularly, I don't keep it on a tender, if it sits more than a week or so, I'll plug it in.

 

You are in the window of time where I replace my batteries. I am a fan of Big Cranks from battery mart. When mine started acting up in Sept. they were back ordered 3 weeks. I ended up with a Duralast.

 

I had good luck with a Duracell from Batteries Plus. Good price and 3 year warranty.

 

Take a look at Banshee. I put one in my Heritage and love the way it starts.

 

Good news. I was thinking it was the battery. Fella I work with on parts at the dealership is a neighbor as well so I usually work with him when I go up there. He thought it was weird that it would go so quick. He remembered selling me the one in it now and he pulled up the record and said, yeah, it's just a bit over 2 years old. It should be good, then he gave me the 'tender every day' lecture....which I appreciate.

As I was getting ready to pull the old, the bike barked at me and I remembered I have to turn the bike on, pull the main fuse, and disable my alarm system. As soon as I touched the main fuse, the bike lit up and it was right as rain. The main fuse was loose. Reseated it, connected it all back up and it roared to a start.

Ain't gonna lie, i may have peacocked around the house a bit, making sure my wife and son knew of my exceptional technical prowess and problem solving skills. With skills like this, I'm thinking about opening up a shop.

Appreciate the folks who chimed in to make a suggestion.

 

Last battery i bought was a yuasa but i cant remember the part # some of the guys here told me which one an i ordered it actualy from a local honda dealer but man that was the strongest battery ever ! I could play the stereo with the amp for an hour sn it still started great

 

I've had loose wiring cause me similar trouble before. I usually put a drop of blue Loctite on my battery screws before I tighten them down and that has helped a bit. I'll say I never keep a tender on any of my bikes all the time, only if I'm not riding one in particular for more than a few weeks. If the charging system is working right and the battery is decent you shouldn't need to keep a tender on it all the time. Do you keep a battery tender on your car or truck? I know they help, but they shouldn't bee needed unless the vehicle is sitting for a long period of time.

I'm about ready to get a new battery for my Ultra so I'm glad to see this post. I bought the bike in April of 2017. It had a one year old Interstate AGM battery in it. A couple of years later I was having the weak compensator issue that most 96" touring bikes get. The hard starting issue because the weak comp kicking back had trashed the starter drive. Everyone kept telling me to replace the battery. I was pretty sure that wasn't the problem but just to spite them I guess I swapped it out with a new one from the Harley Dealership (closest place local I could find one). Sure enough it didn't help the problem in the least. I replaced the compensator sprocket and starter clutch (All ***** unit) and it fixed the hard starting and the clunk when the engine was shut off. About a year after that the Harley OEM AGM I just bought died. It was less than two years old. For grins I put that Interstate AGM battery back in the bike and am STILL running it. That sucker is over five years old and has not failed to start the bike once, even if it wasn't on the tender for over a week.

Anyhow thanks for the references on batteries given so far. I'm going to keep a Google document going for when I need to order one. Here are a couple of links folks had listed a while back. Do these still seem like good choices? I'm not looking at any lithiums, just AGM.

Braille Battery Advanced AGM Lightweight Racing Battery 21 lbs

USA-Made Motocross Platinum GYZ32HL AGM Maintenance Free Powersports Battery

 

This is pretty funny, mostly because it's something I'd do too!

I've been thinking it might be time to swap my battery for a few reasons (2018), and I've been tendering more than not this past season to be sure I don't find myself without a start. I've got a Yuasa GYZ32HL saved in a wish-list for when the time comes..

Just to be safe (and take full advantage of my exceptional technical prowess and problem solving skills) I'm gonna re-seat my main-fuse before hitting the road later today!

 

I think it was gyz32hl maybe plus that battery was 3 yrs old when i traded the bike in an it was still good an strong

 

I love these battery posts, there is only about 5 places where they make batteries, and they make them for everyone else. Thinking East Penn is one of the big boys.