Batteries....
 

My battery won't hold a charge for more than a week now so it is connected up to an 'Optimate' charger thingy all the time it is not being used. The bike is a year old. Is this normal or do I need a new battery?

I had my bike since nov 2004, done 19500 miles on it same battery. riding every day of the week commuting to work and back whatever the weather, so I assume something is wrong with yours and I would have it checked under warranty by a yamaha dealer maybe is the alternator that is not recharging it.

I know of two people who have had their batterys changed under warrenty as the batterys went tits up in less that a year,it might be a coincident but does you bike have a alarm system built in ?

If you have a multimeter, set it to volts, put the leads across the battery. Start the bike raise the engine speed to about 3000 rpm then take a voltage reading, it should be around the 13 to 14 volts, if it is charging correctly.

Now set it to amps. Remove the ignition key from the ignition & disconnect the earth lead to the battery. Put the positive lead on the battery & the neg lead on the earth strap, this will check amp draw. It should not read more then 0.06 of an amp after 60 seconds. If it is reading more then 0.06 something is draining the battery.

If both these test are ok, the battery will need to be load tested. You would need to take it to a motorcycle dealer, or a battery shop, for them to load test the battery.
If it's still under warranty take your bike to a Yamaha dealer & get them to check it out.

Thanks for the info. It doesn't have an alarm on it and I don't have a multimeter, so I guess I should have a chat with my local dealer.

Cheers,

Pingu.

My battery died also after a year .
My dealer paid half the cost of the new one.
If u have to buy a new one , don't buy the genuine one, it costs a fortune:angry4:

Greetz

I too had the same problem with the battery, mine lasted just 3 months and I ride everyday to work (round trip of about 50miles) they checked the battery and swapped out under the warranty.

You can get one for a few quid these days, and they are very useful things to have around. Go on, splash out! I'm sure you can get a digital multimeter for under a tenner now.

Battery
 

Mine lasted 3 weeks, George Whites sent replacement withiut question.

dead battery
 

the battery on my bike has also died, ive bought 3 batterys now every single 1 goes dead so i paid 4 an auto electrician to look at it, he said it was my starter solenoide. i took it back to the shop i bought it from as the bikes still under warrenty and they told me to buy another battery, then they blamed the alarm so i had that checked out and that was fine i dont no what else to do
please help!!!!!

You need to do a AMP draw test, disconnect the neg lead on your battery, using a multi meter set it to amps, put one lead on the battery & the other on the neg cable there should be no more then 0.06 of a amp draw with the key out. If it is higher your battery will go flat all the time.

If the amp draw is high, start to unpluging the fuses watching the meter, when the amp draw goes to normal then that is the problem circuit. You then need to find what is on that circuit & repair the problem. Your auto electrician could be right, I have seen a starter solenoide do this before.

Also it could be a round of you having an alarm and from your picture your bike lives out side, and if you dont ride it everyday the battery isnt charging enough.

So my thought would be to get a battery charger/conditioner, i find my bike starts to labour when starting after about 3-4 days not being started (only happened once) and thats with it being in a garage, if its out doors alot the oil will cool and make it harder for a large single to turn over and fire. + having an alaram take a small draw of the battery over a couple of days will drain it even further. (my dad use to own a Suzuki GSXF600 with alaram as standard and it would drain the battery die in 6days if not started)

hey kev.
ive tried to do an amp draw test using a multi meter but for some strange unknown reason when we unplugged the battery to do the test we couldnt get any life out of the bike (unplugged the earth, put one of the meter leads on the strap and the other on the battery) we checked the meter fuse and that was ok.
so ive got my bike booked back into the shop as there so called "head mechanic" is back and hell be able to sort it.
ill keep you posted if they come back to me with anything
thanks

hello maxwell
yeah my bikes well used unfortunately so it does live most of its life outside, when i first bought the bike i had the alarm put on it and because its a tatcham approved alarm its got to be able to stay alarmed for 2weeks and 1day before the battery dies which it used to do untill i got hit of it in november, it was in storage for at least a month and ever since then ive had this problem. but as i said to kev im takin it back to the shop on tues the 4th so if they tell me anything ill keep you all posted
thanks

ive just been able to do an amp test on my bike and its the back up fuse which is a power supply to the immobilizer, clock and odometer, drawing 0.13 of an amp

the bike shop have only just got back to me today and are sayin that its the regulator rectifyer thats at fault, and if that isnt the problem then their sending it to yamaha uk as there out of suggestions......

Batteries
 

My bike is an 07 and the Batt was changed under Yamaha warranty, It would discharges over about 2 weeks, I also bought a trickle charger works for me, I only use the bike every couple of weeks "Fair weather rider"