How often should you charge your battery?  By  kxj5906 (Read 971 times)

howdy and congrats on the burgman. I have found that I need no battery maintainance since I apparently ride far enough and often enough to keep everything up to snuff. if I was riding less I would be conscious of small differences such as riding on low beam during the daytime, letting off on the brake after stopping, not using the turn signals if there is no-body nearby to be affected. in other words minimize use of electrical items. the other option is as I do, occasionally take a longer ride just , as my grandmother might have said, "on account of because". that might charge things up and warm up the oil which would help drive moisture out of the crankcase. it would also keep the brake discs and rotors in better shape etc. and be fun?

lotsa miles and smiles to ya
ken

I have 3 scooters and 2 motorcycles, and I have a Battery Tender Jr. connected to them, at all times. When I go for a ride, I unplug it, then plug it back in when I get back. I've been doing this for the past 5 years or so. I have noticed substantially increased battery life. I have spent a fortune on motorcycle/scooter batteries over the last 35 years. The tenders definitely help a lot. If your battery is already bad, you may have to replace it anyway.

I only connect a charger if I forget to turn off the lights after stopping.

My Savage 650 was my commuter, under 4 miles one way. If the bike starts easy the battery will be recharged in just a few minutes of riding. My Vespa is my shopping cart and usually the runs are under 3 miles between stops.

If you don't ride that much, a standard battery should hold a charge for two weeks, an AGM battery should be able to start the bike after three months.

If a battery is weak, needs a battery tender, it needs replacement.

In the years i've owned my scoot it has never once been on the charger except for when i initially poured the electrolyte in. Even after sitting through winter it fires up. If you need to charge it i would suspect a bad battery or charging system.

I keep a Battery Tender Jr hooked up all the time when not riding, both summer and winter (which has been brutal this year).
The trike is kept in an attached non-heated garage for what it's worth.
Never have had a battery problem, plenty of cranking power even with the temps ungodly cold, and only starting the trike once a week to keep the juices flowing.
I'm a firm believer in keeping the battery charged independently & not relying on the somewhat questionable charging capacity of the onboard system.
But that's just me, your mileage may vary.

Most bikes, especially scooters, have pretty marginal charging systems. The battery will actually discharge while idling. A car on the other hand has a whopper of a charging system, which will quickly charge a battery, even at idle. With five bikes, I simply cannot ride all of them enough to keep the batteries properly charged. If you only have one, and ride it every day, then it will probably be ok. My personal experience is that batteries don't stay charged as long as they used to (a long time ago) I have had several brand new quality motorcycle/scooter batteries go dead in one month, while they used to last 2-3 months.

Another unrelated but serious issue with letting a bike sit for a long time is fuel system damage due to ethanol gas. I have seen carburetors destroyed by this stuff. If I am not going to ride a bike for a week or more, I drain the float bowl and spray some WD-40 into the carb vent hose to prevent corrosion.