Took the bike out this weekend and logged some miles. On the way home stopped at a light and dead. No click, no start, nothing. Luckly I was next to a lot so pushed her in. Long story short, pulled the seat and heres the battery.




Did some troubleshooting and turns out my voltage regulator was pushing 18+ volts at 2000 rpm. New one should be here tomorrow.

 

That could have been bad. Glad your good
Been lucky on bikes but have seen a couple of car battery's explode because of overcharging

WP

 

Thank you WP, I got really lucky with this one.

 

man I saw a trike burn to the ground on the turnpike once it happens...

 

On this train of thought, you can check your regulator religiously in the garage, however: it can let go at any time, is there any kind of sensor/cut out, (for lack of a better word) that could be put inline that would prevent something like this? Just thinking out loud.

 

Voltage gauge

 

C’mon man! You know those are where the tweeters go in the fairings? Wait…

 

Short of a voltage gauge you are not going to know what the charging rate is going down the highway. There are some small voltage gauges that you can mount just about anywhere that would keep you posted as to what was going on with your electrical system.

 

When my Dyna fuel gauge eventually dies, it will be replaced with a voltage gauge. In the meantime these are handy:

 

I don't see what year bike this happened with. It's rare a 32 amp system "runs away" but I've had 22 amp bikes that would do that.

Unsolicited advice - stay away from Chinese made batteries, period. USA made cost only a little more. Avoid mail order batteries and if buying AGM locally take a DVOM with you and check the voltage. Anything under 12.4 is suspect but probably OK and 12.6 for an AGM on the shelf is fresh. If it checks under 12.2, don't buy it no matter how much they insist it'll charge up or will be under warranty. It'll never be as strong as it should be.