Had a weird issue yesterday after 1hr ride

[Guest]

Ok so yesterday a mate came down and we went for a ride for about an hour together. Usually most of my rides have been fairly short (still learning), but yesterday it was nice enough so we went for a ride along the beach road.

Anyhow, we had stopped a few times before and switched our bikes off and had no issues.
Then after about 15kms we pulled over and switched them off and had a chat for a bit. When going back to start the bike, the battery seemed totally gone! Got one or two moans out of the starter motor and nothing.

So waited a while, took the seat off and got access to the battery to check out the model number (don't know the batteries history from the previous owner but was told it was 'new' )

Anyways, we waited about 15-20 minutes and managed to get enough charge to get it started.

Now today I went into the garage to see if it would start and it started first time, with the headlight on. No dramas.

What could this be?!?! Alternator? battery? particular wind chill factor yesterday?
This noob has no idea.

[MisterCinders]

Might need to check your charging system. How did you charge it when it died on that ride?

[nikosg]

sorry i was a bit unclear.. we just left it be for 15-20 minutes and it got a little bit more in it without doing anything.
So unclear as to whether this is actually a battery issue or something else (seeing as it started straight away this morning with head lights on).

Not sure why a medium length ride would cause this reaction... :s

[bwringer]

sorry i was a bit unclear.. we just left it be for 15-20 minutes and it got a little bit more in it without doing anything.
So unclear as to whether this is actually a battery issue or something else (seeing as it started straight away this morning with head lights on).

Not sure why a medium length ride would cause this reaction... :s

Forget the length of the ride. Numbers... we need numbers. You know, science. Facts. Get your hands on a voltmeter and see if the bike is charging and whether the battery is healthy.

You could have anything from an intermittent or corroded connection to a bad fuse, corroded contacts in the starter switch, a bad ground on the solenoid, worn starter brushes, and several other possibilities. Maybe more than one.

First things first. Spend $3 on a voltmeter. See what the battery voltage is at rest and with the key on. See what the cranking voltage is. See what the charging voltage is at 5,000 rpm.

[Gonzo]

Yep yep. Multimeter and chase down and bad spots. It might be hard to duplicate shorts sometimes since your harness might shift and "fix" itself, so bear in mind you might have to sort through all that spaghetti and look real close for cracks, burns, rubbing, basically any sign of foul play.

[nikosg]

thanks for the tips gents time to learn about electronics....

Should i be referring to the battery, my owners manual or numbers you guys have had when comparing voltages?

[mrbill5491]

Read over the GS STATOR papers on this site.

[cj7jeep81]

my bike behaves the same, I just haven't had time to go through the charging system. it will start right up and be fine for my ride. but if i stop, then try to restart it, it acts like the battery is drained and won't hardly turn over. wait 30 min and it starts right up. last time it did it i just push started it when it wouldn't crank, and it fired right up and ran fine.

maybe this weekend I'll have time to go through the stator papers and check everything. haven't ridden it in a while, and the weather is getting really nice.

[rockford]

Starter

Based on all that you mentioned, I strongly suspect that the problem is the starter. I've experienced that same problem a number of times on bikes and I'd bet that's it. Come to think of it, I also experienced exactly the same thing on a '68 Mustang.

[hampshirehog]

Classic symptoms of either worn starter motor brushes or a dirty armature. The manual will tell you minimum length for the brushes (it varies depending on the model). Pop the thing out, measure and replace if needed or just clean it if not needed.

[nikosg]

thanks for the words
will try to chase down all things mention here. In a week or two after this horror last week or two of uni is over!!! guh . . .

[1948man]

There's a safety switch that only lets it start if the clutch is pulled in. If it's 30 yrs old, chances are it's dirty inside and the contacts need freshening up. If you decide to investigate that, do a search here for some tips. You can lose little parts easy when you take it apart if you're not careful. My bike wouldn't start after a ride the other day when I parked it to open my gate. I jiggled the clutch and it finally started strongly. After a good cleaning, all is well.