Kawasaki Concours Forum
The C-14, aka Kawasaki Concours-14, the new one :) => The Bike - C14/GTR 1400 => Topic started by: reesedp on October 31, 2012, 08:48:52 AM
-
She was parked as she always was before a storm. In the driveway; cover strapped on tightly. The was nothing unusual that day, only minor rain and slightly lower temperatures. Having survived the PMS of Sandy, and seeing that the weather was clear for the day with only a 20% chance of rain, I went out to uncover and start her up...
BUZZ...
CLICK...
Rrrr...rrrr...rrrr.
Started finally. Rode at high rpm's to work and noted the voltage drop from 14.6 down to the normal 14.4. Parked, shut her off, then attempted restart. She cranked a lot longer (though strongly) before she fired. Battery is about two years old. What do you all think?
-
Clean and tighten the battery post and check the grounding points on the frame.
-
Get that poor bike out of the weather and under a roof. :(
-
I'm guessing a poor battery connection.
-
I'm guessing a poor battery connection.
Or time for a new battery. Or both, even!
-
Or time for a new battery. Or both, even!
Max when are you ever going to be over on the peninsula? We should grab a burger, man. Or a burrito. Or sushi. Or something!!
-
Max when are you ever going to be over on the peninsula? We should grab a burger, man. Or a burrito. Or sushi. Or something!!
I am there around once a month, when I can come to grips with the tunnel :) A few weeks ago, I did the small "tunnel run" just for fun. [PM sent]
(For those not local: there are several tunnels around here, and one route goes through the Downtown Tunnel, then Monitor Merrimack Tunnel, then Hampton Roads Tunnel in a 40 mile circle. Trying to figure out how to add the Midtown tunnel and Bay Bridge Tunnel in the mix is somewhat of a meandering challenge... especially the Bay-Bridge, because unless you double back, you just changed a 40 mile circle into perhaps an 800 mile route?)
-
You did those tunnels just for fun? :nuts: What time of the day (and which day) did you do them? I'm thinking early Sunday morning at the moment?
I've had that very thing happen to me when I washed the bike once. I took the battery out, cleaned everything up, put it back, and it never happened again. As a result, I've resolved to never (or virtually never) to wash the bike again. It's bad luck.
-
I didnt have time to do anything last night, but went out and gave it a go this morning. Started up normally. Maybe the cold coupled with sitting for four days due to the weather. If so, I'm thinking the battery might be about done. Looked at the Motobatt yesterday and it seemed to fit the bill.
-
If the display didn't flash a low battery warning along with the red warning light, then the battery is probably still good. Battery connections are the likely fault. Well that, and the bike didn't like being left outside during a storm. ;)
-
You did those tunnels just for fun? :nuts: What time of the day (and which day) did you do them? I'm thinking early Sunday morning at the moment?
Trust me, traffic around here is normally insane enough that I would never attempt such a thing. But it was late on Sunday, I think, and conditions were good for some odd reason (checked traffic on Google Maps on my Android before I left).
-
Sounds like a KiPass issue to me (I cannot believe that no one thought of this already- c'mon guys, think outside the box).
If the bike cranked slowly after sitting for a bit, even several days, and then cranked at normal speeds after being ridden, and given that it is not yet that cold out, my guess would be a tired battery. All batteries suffer from self- discharge but there is usually enough capacity available that we do not notice it in vehicle batteries. However, when batteries get 'tired' and start off in a weakened state, a little bit of discharge pushes them into the area where they struggle to provide enough current. Just as an example: say a given battery has 500% of what is required to start a vehicle correctly, and it self discharged down to 400% capacity. Starting the vehicle would not show any appreciable or noticeable difference as there was so much more available power than necessary in either case. But once a battery deteriorates to, say, 1/2 of its original capacity, and then self- discharges even more than normal due to being left for a longer than normal period of time than usual, it would eventually be noticed that something is weak.
I agree with the others in that you should check the battery and frame ground connections, and it is really impossible to diagnose a weak battery without a true load test but what you describe are the classis symptoms of lead- acid battery deterioration. When they get really bad they will not hold enough of a charge overnight to start the vehicle the next day but after a charge and / or jump and a bit of running, they seem fine for several starts in the same day.
Brian
I didnt have time to do anything last night, but went out and gave it a go this morning. Started up normally. Maybe the cold coupled with sitting for four days due to the weather. If so, I'm thinking the battery might be about done. Looked at the Motobatt yesterday and it seemed to fit the bill.
-
Okay. All was well until I tried to start her this afternoon. Good voltage on the way to work. Went to come home and things went nuts. No crank, windscreen rose a little, display went off. Pulled battery out and found negative terminal twisted and actually melted into the case slightly. In addition, the cover over the cells was bulged up a bit in one spot. Massive internal short? Replaced battery and all is well so far. I guess I just wonder why me?
-
Okay. All was well until I tried to start her this afternoon. Good voltage on the way to work. Went to come home and things went nuts. No crank, windscreen rose a little, display went off. Pulled battery out and found negative terminal twisted and actually melted into the case slightly. In addition, the cover over the cells was bulged up a bit in one spot. Massive internal short? Replaced battery and all is well so far. I guess I just wonder why me?
Sounds like an internal short, or something bad happened in there. As for why you? Probably because, I already had my turn. :)
The good news is you solved the mystery, so now you're ready to do laps around the continent, if you want.
-
Okay. All was well until I tried to start her this afternoon. Good voltage on the way to work. Went to come home and things went nuts. No crank, windscreen rose a little, display went off. Pulled battery out and found negative terminal twisted and actually melted into the case slightly. In addition, the cover over the cells was bulged up a bit in one spot. Massive internal short? Replaced battery and all is well so far. I guess I just wonder why me?
Why not? It has to happen to someone... Thanks for taking it for us. :thumbs: Glad you got it fixed, though.
-
Why not? It has to happen to someone... Thanks for taking it for us. :thumbs: Glad you got it fixed, though.
That's me: Taking one for the team. It was definitely an HD fix at $98 for a ready to go AGM at the local AutoZone. Thanks to Kurt Murphy for the use of his car to pick it up!
-
Checked my original to the bike battery last night, and installed the tender charger harness to it while in there. Still cranks good, and hope keeping it charged will squeak another summer out of it!