Is this expected battery behaviour? (Motobatt)

[EazyDuz]

Last May i purchased a Motobatt for my bike because the one in it was almost toast.
I put the bike away for winter somewhere around mid to late November last year, hadnt fired it up until today.

I go to fire it up today, switch the ignition on with choke on full, lights on (didnt notice).
It turns over, but very slowly, very slightly more than one rotation per second. I realize the headlight is on so i turn it off, and that gave the starter just enough juice to get the bike running, albeit a bit rough.

So my question is, is it normal for a battery that age to reduce its charge that much since November?
I havnt had the battery on charge at all since i bought it, being a Motobatt i didnt think i'd need to.

The only other thing i can think is that i have my heated grips wired to the battery, but i know they havnt been on at all when the bike has been off, but i have read they can still draw some power even when not on? If thats the case, removing the inline fuse would prevent this right?
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[Bezzer]

Cold is a battery's biggest killer, a couple of months in the garage without use in the weather we've had would be more than enough to deplete it a fair bit. Well worth using a trickle charger no matter what quality the battery is or charge it every few weeks.
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I used to be indecisive but now I'm not quite so sure.

[P.]

My bike (CBR) had the battery disconnected for a month. Not enough juice to fire the bike, enough to turn lights on though.

So yes, quite possibly... but I'd expect the Motobatt to be slightly better.

[Vincent]

It all depends on the battery's capacity, I suspect the 535 has quite a small battery? What's the capacity? My Motobatt, (14 AH with 200 cold cranking amps @-18), has been brilliant but the longest the bike's been left is about 10 days, after that it started with loads of spare power.
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[EazyDuz]

the motobatt model for the 535 is the MB12U.
Stats:

This particular MotoBatt QuadFlex™ battery is a MB12U to fit a Yamaha XV 535 Virago (1988-2003), replacing the convential battery part numbers CB12A-A, 12N12A-4A-1, CB12AL-A2, CB12A-B, CB12C-A, 12N12C-4A-2, CB12AL-A2. The physical characteristics of this battery are:

Battery Capacity: 15 [Ah]
CCA (-18°C): 160 [A]
Dimensions (LxWxH): 135 x 80 x 161 [mm]
Total Height: 175 [mm]
Terminals: 4
Notes: Includes 14 mm bottom spacer


Its worth noting the Viragos charging system is known to be pretty shit. Would some heated grips drain power further even if they arent switched on?
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[Vincent]

Are you sure that nothing's draining the battery with the ignition off and that your charging system is AOK?
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Space Is Deep

[Vincent]

[EazyDuz]

[Bezzer]

[Walloper]

If it's not been on a conditioner then you may have knacked the battery.
Only way to tell is to get a charger on it for at least 10 hours then try it again.
The issue is after a charge the battery will have enough oomf to turn the engine over a few times but batteries do not like storage. (Unless of a particular type.)

A check on the condition of the internals and how healthy it is is to use a High Rate Discharge Test.
You can do that on the bike or take it to a garage where they can put a HRD tester on it. Halfords may have a tester. (But I would not be surprised if the Laddie/Lassie don't know how to use one properly.
Basicaly you measure the battery voltage as a heavy load is applied. A healthy battery should maintain fairly high volts for several seconds. (or until it melts the tester ) A fubar battery will measure high volts at first but then dive towards zero as the load is maintained.
Quick and simple.
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[EazyDuz]

Will a 500Mah trickle charger be ok?

I'll put it on charge tomorrow.
To be honest between October to November i didnt do any journeys longer than about 12 miles either.
I might just remove the heated grips and flog them, they didnt seem to make much difference anyway. Thicker gloves would make more sense.
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[Walloper]

[J.M.]

[doggone]

[Walloper]

[EazyDuz]

So where the fuck do i charge it? Outside? In which case the cold will probably counter act any attempts the trickle charger makes lol
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[J.M.]

[EazyDuz]

Shed has no leccy, garage has a boiler in it with pipes full of oil leading to a huge oil tank in the back garden, would wipe out the entire village haha.
I'll just do it in my room under close observation.
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[Raffles]

[EazyDuz]

Simple answer, impulse buy
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[TomGT]

The motobatt in the CBR went flat after a week, completely disconnected in a garage. Had to replace the battery anyway when I got it, so shelled out extra for a motobatt, pretty disappointed overall especially with the weird allen bolt terminals.

I always plug it into the optimate and when it's charged it's great, but I'd have the same results with any other battery. Jumped it through the oximiser lead, it didn't like it

[Kickstart]

Hi

Possible the heated grips do draw a tiny bit of current. Presume the electronic control unit has a tiny power drain to detect whether the on / off is activated if it is not a mechanical switch. Might be worth setting the multimeter to measure amps and put it in place of the fuse (make no attempt to turn the grips on). A 0.005a power drain would kill your battery in about 3 months.

While I would doubt it, it is possible and worth a check.

All the best

Keith
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[EazyDuz]

[EazyDuz]

Well i went to try and and my multimeter is faulty. It has power but i cant even check volts on the battery, andi dont even know how to check amps lol.
Can anyone recommend a cheap but decent multimeter?

Btw bike fired up fine this morning
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[The Artist]