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My wife's 1200C doesn't get ridden as much as I ride my EG, and I'm curious as to whether or not I should put it on a tender. She might not ride for a couple of weeks, then ride a bunch, then not. Recommendations? We live in Vegas, so the bikes don't get put away for the winter like some areas of the Country, but may not get ridden often during the "winter" that we do have.
I upgraded to a Shorai lithium battery, no tender needed. I'm in San Diego so we don't have extreme cold winters either, not even as cold as Vegas. Not sure how old her stock battery is, but perhaps an option.
I have tenders for all my bikes, including the Li one - although I only use that one over winter. I only use them on my ordinary batteries if I know I'm not going to ride for a few days, I don't use them every night if riding the following day. Batteries will last a lot longer by using one, as well as ensuring the bike is ready to roll when your wife feels like it.
I have tenders on everything. I recently started using a "Mroinge automotive trickle battery charger maintainer 12V 1A" on my sporty.... just because i didn't want to bother with pushing the bike over to the side of the garage where the tenders already are and I had alreay been using that Mroinge to charge my Z4's car battery. I'm just plain Lazy. At this point.
the the battery tender junior is more than enough. Used it and a larger deltran tender plus for years. Never a problem from either. No more weak starts.
I don't worry about a week or two, but put a tender on for longer. Two weeks, it often tops off in a minute, so they don't go down all that much if its a good battery. I got my second Noco Genius smart tender last year, after my van sat a couple summer months and went dead enough my regular charger wouldn't even try to charge it and the bikes' Noco revived it; I decided they were worth the money. I had a new Schumacher tender cook a battery, trashed that one. Still have an old Battery Tender Plus, and it works good on a good battery, but a couple times wouldn't charge one the Noco did. Supposedly the Noco will run a de-sulphate cycle when it senses that's a problem, but doesn't indicate it. New ones will do both lead acid and Li. Decades ago you could let a bike sit over the winter with no problem, in '67-'68 I let one sit a year when out of the country and after kick starting it, charged up fine. You won't do that with today's glass mat batteries, not near as durable as old wet cells.
I've read from what I assume was a reliable source that there is a difference between a "battery tender" and a "trickle charger" - the difference being, if left for prolonged periods of time, a trickle charger can and will "fry" your battery by evaporated all the water. A tender cycles the battery and will not "overcharge".
I've read from what I assume was a reliable source that there is a difference between a "battery tender" and a "trickle charger" - the difference being, if left for prolonged periods of time, a trickle charger can and will "fry" your battery by evaporated all the water. A tender cycles the battery and will not "overcharge".
Quite true! A trickle charger is an old fashioned type that simply gave a very low level of charge, compared with a high output one. A 'tender' or 'minder' is a modern high tech substitute and much to be preferred.
After reading the first few responses to my question this morning, I installed a tender that I had. The battery is a Harley branded AGM, but I have no idea how old it is. I bought this bike for my wife for her birthday in August - 2006 XL1200C. 3k miles. Previous (one) owner bought new tank and fenders when this thing was new, had them custom painted with cool ghost flames and lots of other stuff as well.
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Battery Tender
