Battery Charging

[Bendy]

Right, I think I'm probably looking for a solution that no other human being on the face of the earth has ever wanted, but bear with me.

Can you get a battery charger (Optimate type thing) which you plug into a cigarette lighter socket on another vehicle, drawing it's power from there?

See, I don't have a plug anywhere near where I park in the garage, but I do have a portable powerstation thing - basically a chargeable 12v battery in a big yellow box with 2 cigarette lighter jack plugs and jump leads coming off it.

So, what would be nice would be to hook that up to the bike battery, via this mythical device, to keep the battery good when it's not getting used for a bit - adding the pager system to the alarm has resulted in a pretty quick drain of the bike battery so a couple of weeks of non-use is going to see it running pretty low (as I found out yesterday).

I've seen plug adaptors for optimates, but they appear to be designed to charge TO not FROM - ie. the optimate's still plugged into the mains.

And before anyone suggests...

a) Yes, I am aware that I can jump-start the bike from the powerstation.

b) No, I'm not going to try and bump start it. Ever.

c) I don't want to take the battery out the bike to charge it as that means my alarm system won't work.

This is more a hypothetical question, given that the best answer is just to use my bike more, which won't be a problem once it stops snowing.

Any ideas?

[Hex]

Have you seen them solar power trickle chargers? Not sure how good they are or how much charge they actually give though.

As for a charger that is powered from a lighter socket, never came across one though I have came across lighter plug to lighter plug jump leads.
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[Bendy]

Solar's an idea. I shall go have a look at them.

[Ian (GPX)]

Bendy,

This any good to you ....

https://www.bridgwater-electronics.co.uk/p_50_Battery+Trickle+Charger.php

[Hex]

Thats the type of thing.

I'm sure you could easily split the wire and put a quick connector in there so you could plug it in to the bike/remove it without having to mess around with wires on the battery all the time.
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[Rob]

[Kickstart]

Hi

I would think that as long as both batteries are fairly normally charged you could just join them together, like using a pair of jump leads. Of course if you tried to put a large load on the batteries then small gauge wires would just melt. Not sure as electrics are not my strong point.

Gavs suggestion of one of those solar panels would be fairly good, except not really workable where you keep your bike (primarily because it would be nicked). The same applies to using an Optimate down there.

Not really helpful. Sorry. Only real suggestion I can think of is to have 2 batteries and rotate them on a weekly basis, charging one with an Optimate in your flat. Using a normal charger on the sealed batteries can wreck them, but then so can running a battery flat.

All the best

Keith
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[Steve H]

I bought the Optimate purely because of the Datatool alarm and Pager Function and to be fair it certainly does the job.

The 'Cigarette Lighter attatchment' is well worth having as it precludes having to remove the seat when fitting the charger to the battery.

I'm sure the attatchment to the battery by use of a reverse charge from another could be done although thank goodness I have a couple of electrical points in my garage which means I don't have to do it.

Have you thought of just buying an extremely long plug extension cord and running it out of a window (or any other hole in the wall - Satellite point for example) for the duration that you need it to be on charge? Obviously not an ideal way to do it but certainly an interim solution.

SteveH
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[Korn]

You'll be wanting one of these. Lighter socket to 230v plug socket converter.
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[SARS]

How many parts will be effected without battery on NSR?

[Bendy]

Nice, a few options there.

Solar charger with a long wire would be cool, cos I could just cable-tie it up to the window bars and ignore it. Could be tempted to get one and give it a go, and if it doesn't work too well, think about the others.

Changing tack, once your battery's very flat, vaguely how long a run will the bike need to get it back to a decent level of charge? I could jump it tonight but it's going to be cold and icy and horrible, so wouldn't want to take it out for all that long.

[MarJay]

The solar thingy,

I doubt it will work unless under direct sunlight.

Thats not ideal for sunny Slough!
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Hex]

[Bendy]

Lots of them claim to work under cloudy conditions. And if that's not dazzling sunlight that's waking me up every morning I don't know what it is - must be doing some crazy experiments at Ze Institute across the road.

Basically, if it's no use, I sell it on ebay.

[MarJay]

OK cool,

I must be out of touch!
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Kickstart]

Hi

Depends on the battery, charging system, what you have turned on, etc. Generally quite a long time, unfortunatly. Also some charging systems will do next to nothing at idle, and some will not do anything until they reach a certain point )eg, my old Alfa 75 with a worn Bosch alternator would not charge the battery until you had revved the engine over 3000rpm for the first time (easier to do that than fix the alternator).

I would say take it out onto the M4, go along one junction, back off and home. That should put a reasonable amount of charge into it.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[dainesefreak]

I read the Battery charging instructions years ago on an Aprilia, can't remember whether they recommended a 100 kms or Mls. It was probably kms as it was an Italian bike. I suppose you could give it a couple of shorter blasts over a period of a week to make up the distance if you don't fancy doing it all at once, can't imaging the charge would degrade that quickly.

[Bendy]

That's cool. Basically just want to give it a boost then at the weekend it'll get a nice long run and/or I'll have got a charger by then.

It's still got enough in it to run the alarm at the moment, but if two weeks with the pager took it down to the point of not starting (while 2 months standing without the pager was fine) then it's really sucking some juice and I reckon I should poke it as soon as possible.

[Kickstart]

Hi

The tracker system in one of our cars will kill the car battery in about 4 days. It draws 0.79 amps. The alarm in my car will kill a new fully charged battery in about 2 weeks (about half that once the battery is a couple of years old) and I have toyed with one of those solar panels to give it a bit more life.

All the best

Keith
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[dainesefreak]

I bought one of these https://www.halfords.com/opd_product_details.asp?id=16899&type=0&cat=28 because I'm a cheap skate and it works fine on my 12v battery on the Blade. It usually gives a decent charge in about 30 mins. The only problem is that you would need to take the battery out to do it, but as it doesn't take long to charge, you could whip it out, charge it and put it back in under an hour or so. I take it the battery is under the seat on the 600 the same as the 900? It's only a rubber strap thingy on mine holding the battery in place.

[Bendy]

Hmm, that is very reasonably cheap. Maybe I'll go for the more hassle - less cash option. After all, as soon as the weather perks up the old girl will be getting a nice run to and from work most days, so it should cease to be a real problem. It's just the sitting around that's doing it.

And yeah, right under the seat so not a big hassle to get out.

[Ian (GPX)]

Bendy, it's when winter returns that the problem will re-show it's ugly head. Might be a good idea to plan ahead and save yourself the hassle of having to look / buy later, that way you'll be ready to store the bike again and not need to worry about the state of the battery when spring returns next year.

[Bendy]

You'd think.

But I'm more a happy-go-lucky, take-each-day-as-it-comes kinda gal, and as such will take a cheaper solution now when I'm skint and worry about long-term storage when long-term storage comes around. A lot could happen between now and November.