I bought a used 05 1200R about a month ago and almost immediately the battery died. I brought it to the dealership and they told me that the battery had loose connections and had melted its posts. They also told me that the charging system ( rotor / stater ) was just fine. Long story short, they put a new battery in the bike and about ten days later it is dead! I rode my bike a few times and kept it on a tender when I wasn't riding so I was shocked when it wouldn't start.

I brought the bike back to the dealership and they said it will be almost 2 weeks before they can have their electrical guy take a look at it. Does anyone have any thoughts on what might be going on here? I have no extras on the bike (lights, etc) that would be drawing power and draining the battery.

 

If bike won't keep charge, two things are suspect one is stator, two is voltage regulator. Simple check is to see voltage and amps at battery. If not at specs a check is done at stator for output. With battery shorting out tho you may have wiring issue, involves checking continuity on wiring harness. A simple draw test can see if something is on. I wouldn't waait 2 weeks tho

 

Did you try tighten the cables again on new battery. Charge it overnight on a low amp maintenance battery charger and try it again?

Then you can take your volt/ohm meter and while it is running 2000 or so, check your DC volts with meter. Should be about 14.8 or so.

 

When I put my bike on the tender I watch to see when the light starts to flash green. This is an indication that the battery was being charged on the bike.

Doesn't one of the warning lamps not come on if the stator output fails?

 

Buy a shop manual and work on it yourself, could be a bad battery (even though it's new) a loose or corroded connection, corrosion in the fuse box, bad ignition switch, or it's not charging (stator or regulator).
A shop manual (and a little advice from the members here) will guide you thru diagnosing and repairing the problem properly yourself rather than waiting for someone else to do it at a high cost.

 

I had the bike on a battery tender and the light was solid green (indicating it was a full charge). Dealer checked the stator / regulator when I brought it in and said they were fine. I didnt get any warning lights when i tried to start her up last time, i just tried to start it up and nothing happened except the gauges needles started to flicker.

A manual and some tools will be in my future, but I am no mechanic so its tough to know where to start looking for the problem. I appreciate all the responses !

 

This is what I found, ground is mounted to the lower case, the engine moves while running and slowly breaks the wire, when you replace it get one a little longer the stock one is to short also. Follow the link it is to a post on this site.

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/gener...ry-cables.html

 

So you started it after the battery was fully charged and that was okay. You then left the bike for a period of time and when you went to start it nothing happened.

How long did you leave the bike standing and was it on the tender charger or not? Are you forgetting to fully switch the bike off after a ride?

Does your bike have an alarm? Does it have any additional electronics fitted that requires power permanently?

You don't need to be a mechanic to chase down an electrical fault but you will find a manual and multi-meter invaluable.

 

If there's a chance that they didn't actually check the voltage regulator you should check that out. I had one go bad and it was allowing too much juice to get to the battery and killed the battery. You're also prone to blowing bulbs in that situation. There's an electrical sticky somewhere around here that walks you through diagnosing charging problems, I'd give that a read.

 

The bike was in my garage for about 5 days because of the weather and I had it on a tender the whole time. The bike does have an Alarm but doesn't seem to be working at the moment but it doesnt have any other electronics (lighting etc).