My bike has been sitting up longer lately since I've been sick. Still ride it daily, but just around the block a few times so I don't go stir crazy.

Thing is, the bike starts harder every morning and I'm putting on the battery tender at least once a week after it won't turn over at all.

The ballast that starts HID headlight is the only culprit I can think of that would rob so much power from my battery. Is it possible these rides are too short to recharge the battery from starting the headlight?

I'd rather find find that out now than when I'm laid up for a few days on a trip only to find my battery dead!

 

Pretty sure the battery has a hard time charging just from riding it once drained a bit. It's not like a car's charging system at all.

 

Why are you only putting the batter tender on once per week? Why not have it on all week?

 

You can pull the fuse for the head light.

 

I have the same light as you from the looks of it. Yes the light drains the battery fast so you have to ride it a ways to get it charged up again. Most of the time when I come home from a ride and plug the battery tender up to the bike, it will charge heavily for a couple minutes and then start blinking. The heavy charge doesn't last long and the blinking lasts 5-10 minutes before the battery is fully charged. The ballast that starts the headlight draws a lot of juice when it first starts but then it is supposed to draw about the same amount of current as a regular light. Once in a while the charger runs for a long time at full charge before it charges the battery to full. I don't know why but it does. My best advice to you is to keep it on the battery tender at all times it is not being ridden. It will extent your battery life in the long run. I've heard of people getting 10 years on a battery tender.

 

This is what a 50watt HID system draws pretty heavy for that charging system and battery may take a little more time to put that back and will shorten battery life due to constant recharging. I think you need to hook battery tender up all the time. These ratings are at ambient temp 72 They will change based on temp.
Voltage: 12V
Wattage: 50W
Amp Draw: 12A start up/ 4.9A continuous

 

Which HID system do you have? Where did you get it? How much trouble was the install?

Jay

 

what he asked.

 

Seems like a pretty simple qusetion to me.

Jay

 

Well it is a Kuryakyn product. I love the light it provides but the quality control is $hit. It was made in China I'm pretty sure. The little bulb reflector keeps coming loose and it is happening with all of the ones that Kury imports. This is the third one that has the same problem. While it is a great light it has it's problems.