Can I start the bike while on a battery tender?

[andrewclaycomb]

This might either be a really stupid question or a really dangerous question.
I'm trying to start my bike and after a few minutes of working the starter the battery will die. I have my Yuasa battery tender on the battery now and am wondering if I can try to start the bike with the tender still hooked up.

I don't even know if the tender puts out enough power to matter (I think it's only 2 amps)

The battery is the sealed type

Any thoughts?

I think I need to put the petcock on prime for a few minutes next time because I just had the carbs rebuilt.

[salty_monk]

No, don't leave the tender attached. If you want to do anything then get yourself a "starter charger".

You can also connect a set of jump leads to your car battery (without the engine running only!) This should give you some extra capacity.

Dan

[Steve]

Be careful if you use a "starter charger", though. Some of them also boost the voltage, along with allowing extra amps. The extra voltage will not be good for your regulator.

Best bet is to connect jumpers to a non-running car, pickup, lawn mower, whatever, as long as it has a 12 volt battery.

Even better bet is to let your battery tender fully top off the battery before putting a load on it. If it still does not handle the load of starting the bike, it's time for a new battery. While doing some other shopping, I found these batteries at a decent price.

.

[jbs80106]

I've done this lots of times...

esp if its been cold in the garage and I'm trying to start the bike up. Even with a full charged battery, repeated cranks of the starter eventually drain the battery. My trickle charger seems to atleast extend the battery until its eventually too low to crank.

I've not had any issues doing it....

[p_s]

I usually leave it plugged in until my bike is idling. At worst you could kill the charger, but there are diodes to protect it. When it gets warmer I'll probably put the charger away until fall.

[andrewclaycomb]

Well I set my petcock to prime for about a minute, left my tender hooked up and on and pressed the starter button. Fired right up.

[Steve]

Ain't it just amazing what happens when you do it right? :-\"

.

[DanTheMan]

I've been starting mine on the tender, no problems. I've also got an aGM battery, none of that lead acid stuff.....:-D