Dead Daelim Roadwin / Electrical?

[Stuster]

Mornings all,

So I was riding along a few days ago, when my bike started to splutter, the dash started to go mad... Rev counter was shooting up then resting at zero. I parked up at a local pub and scratched my head a little.

After 15 mins I went to start the bike again but there was no power at all. I popped the bike in 2nd and bump started it and off I rode, putting it down to a dead battery. Around a mile later the same thing happened again. I have had the volt o meter out, 9.4v from the battery which I know is low. When I switch the ignition on the lights come on dim. I also noticed that the clocks have reset on the dash like the battery has been removed.

You can here the fuel pump prime so I doubt it’s anything major serious. I can also hear a fast clicking from the relay, does this all indicate battery or something else?

If you guys could advise me where to look before I pay 50 quid for a new battery I would be grateful.

Thanks in advance!
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Yamaha TZR125 x 3 Lifan LF125 14-F x 3 Jinlun 125 x 1 Honda CBR 600 F1 Honda Varadero 125cc I am now starting my Honda VFR400 NC30 Project (Still ongoing 27/02/18) Daelim Roadwin 125R

[Rogerborg]

Sure, the battery is humped, but since it died on the move, I'd suspect that you're not getting a good 14V from your alternator or reg/rec.

If you can get it started, check what voltage you're getting across the terminals, then work back from there.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[Teflon-Mike]

I dont know where you are getting prices but £50 for a battery sounds rather steep, for a little 125.

I suspect you are trying to order by make/model/year like you would for a car; battery in your bike aught to have a code, something like YTS12-BS, which comes up for Dalim Roadwin in searches, and means its a 12Ah battery with a whatever way round and type terminals.
Adds suggest that £30 would be more realistic, but you can probably find it cheaper searching by the code.

Make sure wherever you get price from, though that that is for battery AND the acid packs to fill it, if mail order, or pre-filled and charged if collected. + See hint-4 on battery prep.

However... you have idented top trouble; you PROBABLY have a duff battery.... check it, prep it and or get a new one... work from there, if there are any other faults.

Hint-1; you MAY wish to get the battery you have on charge before you buy a new one; and you may need a battery charger; something in the order of 4-8A would probably be about right; more, for big car batteries will charge it rather fast and likely boil acid; smaller is a trickle charge and it will take forever to charge fully.

Hint-2, check electrolyte level before charging; it MAY just be low on electrolyte and topping up with battery water from local motor-factors MAY bring it back in to comission for a while.

Hint-3: 12Ah battery, on a 4Amp charger; will take a LOT more time to charge than the 3hours you might guess from dividing the 12Amp-Hour rating by the 4Amp charge rate. Battery chargers rating is the 'max' amps it can deliver; as the battery accepts charge the terminal voltage will ride, and the amps it can draw will drop; To charge an 8Ah battery on an 8A charger, from completely discharged, to completely charged, will take not 1hour, but around 10 because of the rate drop off.

Hint-4; New Battery Prep: BEFORE fitting battery to bike and expecting the earth; check instructions carefully; if supplied 'dry' it will need filling with acid. NOT distilled water. take note! Remove bungs, and fill 'almost' to the top level line with acid. Leave out the bungs, and put the battery some-where spill-safe, like on a patio floor, on a tray with news-paper etc; and put on a setting as low as you can get away with, say 4A or 'low', and leave charging for an hour; check the charging indicator if charger has one, rate will hopefully have fallen; but also the electrolyte level; on first charge the level often actually goes 'up' as the charge makes the acid 'boil' around the plates.... if it aerates the acid a lot, and usually does, then the acid will vent through the over-flow.... which is why you place on a spill-safe surface, not your mum/girlfriend/wife's favourite bit of carpet close to a plug socket! Vented acid drops volume of acid in battery, so level then drops..... so keep an eye on venting and level at hourly or two hourly intervals 'ish', and top up with acid as necessary. IF you leave it on charge over night, you might do one or two checks and tops before bed, then one as soon as you get up. When you have left to charge for a good ten twelve hours, do a final level check and top, and give it another hour to be sure; THEN leave it to 'settle' for perhaps an hour; check hole its going to be fitted in, fit the vent hose; clean co0ntacts on battery cables on bike, etc.... THEN you might fit to bike, and see how it goes.

Batteries are 'conditioned' by first charge; if they aren't fully charged and properly fiulled before first use, then the heavy current draw of start, and subsequent charge discharge cycles can give them a 'memory' and that will be of 'full' being the not so full of first use. As batteries get used and old, they loose charge capacity, so you dont want really to start from behind.

Also worth noting; little batteries on little bikes, can struggle to stay charged, even from new. The generators on motorbikes tend not to be particularly generous, as the engines have very little power to begin with, so they dont give them a big generator that would rob a lot of what they might make before it gets to the back wheel.

Next; bikes these days tend to have an awful lot of electrical equipment as standard, like an electric start, and headlamps you cant turn off.

A 125 Learner legal motorcycle is likely to have a chassis plate that declared its engine power, at the crank. A1 learner-legal power limit is only 11Kw, most 125's don't make that, and 9Kw the 'old' limit was pretty good, these days many make less than 7Kw... a 'generous' generator on a 125 would be able to provide perhaps 110W, about 1/10th the bikes max possible power, as electricity... at maybe 5ooo revs.... that's about half way up the rev range for most 125's, so you will only get that when the engine is working hard, NOT ticking over on the driveway.

Power is Amps times Volts; so 110w, is about 10A, just under, and that is probably what the main fuse rating is. But, a 35w headlamp and 15w taillamp, let alone a few 3w dash-board lamps, and an 8w side-light will be consuming over half the power the generator could make, even at max power revs..... at tick-over its probably not going to make 1/5 of that, and the battery will be having to make up the defacit..... Pay Heed.... add amps taken before you start by the starter motor, that can such 10x the battery rating or more, you have a half flat battery before you begin, getting flatter the more juice you use compared to what you make.

So, off the drive, you have half flat battery; genny isn't making all the power it could, and the basic equipment is taking more than genny makes.

It wont start putting electric back in the battery until you are revving it over half revs, and even then, you still have equipment sucking half of what genny is making....

12Ah battery.... takes aprox ten hours to fully charge on a 4Ah bench charger... and that is only the sort of ampage you will get from the generator 'at best' keeping the engine at half revs, after permenant equipment like lights, like dash and the ignition system, let alone fuel pump, injectors and ECU if an EFI engine, have taken thier slice off the top....

SO, half flat battery, four five hours of riding, not round the housed, but at 50mph down a motorway sort of thing, to fully recharge the battery......

IF you are riding around town; stop start traffic, engine will only get up to max charging revs briefly on such a run, and sat at traffic lights with the brake lamp on, and or indicators on, you are likely to be sucking more charge from the battery than generator is providing...

SO, if the bike isn't run for a prolonged period, is made to labour in lower gears, spends a lot of time 'stopped' at junctions and traffic lights, it will take even longer for the generator to re-charge the battery....

A-N-D if the battery has been heavily depleted by the starter motor, and often, with lots of long prods on the starter button to get it to catch, and not a lot of ride time between re-starts, either cos bikes stalled, or you got to destination....

It does NOT take much for the battery to be asked for more electric than it is given, and go dodo flat... and not a lot of time for that repetative 'deep-cycle' to make the battery give up the ghost and loose charge capacity altogether.

THIS could be at the root of your 'problem' from the top.

AND many small bikes, used for city riding, or shorter commutes do benefit from the battery levels being checked and if needed topped, as often as the oil.... more, the battery being taken off the bike and bench charged, perhaps every week, or month, or as often as the chain is adjusted... to give it a propper 'top-up' and put back the charge equipment draws, running dont put back, AND keep the battery 'conditioned' some-what, as advice on first fill and first charge.

BUT, you have horendousely low termional volts beneath 10v, which aint good. Its some-what of a wonder it even lights the dash lights or even starts at that low a terminal volts.

THIS is a known fault.... it NEEDS fixing, before any further diagnostics.

As said, could be caused by type of use and lack of routine maintenance. That could have exacerbated natural deterioration of the battery or battery could be completely knackered...

Check electrolyte levels and bench charge, as starters, but expect it will need a new battery; A-N-D if you dont want this happening again; do battery maintenence; check levels, bench charge,. give the bike a good thrashing form time to time; change the way you ride perhaps, use the revs not the gears, ride for response, and let the motor spin and give the genny a chance more often to make most of its possible power rating to put electric back in the battery; dont use unnecessary equipment; make sure you dont ride the brakes and have 35W brake lamp switched on on top of all else unless its telling some-one something useful!

THAT eliminated from the list as the top trouble, and most likely 'problem'... it is likely its the only one.... BUT you wont find any more unless this one sorted......

Expect after to do some other basic routine maintenance, like adjust tappets, change the oil, adjust the idle speed etc, it will all help.... but you have to start by eliminating the obviouse.

Sort the battery!
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[Stuster]

Guys, thank you for your comments.

Teflon! Thank you for all the info, I really appreciate the time you took to explain to me the possible issues.

I bump started the bike and again tested the battery with the Voltomete. It was reading 10.4v then started to drop. 9v then 8... I put a little bit of revs on to see if that would help while just ticking over, but it just lost power and then died. So yeah, I have just ordered a new battery as suggested and will go from there.

I will post a update shortly, fingers crossed this is what the cause is.

Thanks again for your input
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Yamaha TZR125 x 3 Lifan LF125 14-F x 3 Jinlun 125 x 1 Honda CBR 600 F1 Honda Varadero 125cc I am now starting my Honda VFR400 NC30 Project (Still ongoing 27/02/18) Daelim Roadwin 125R

[Stuster]

Teflon, I reread what you posted this morning, you mention that the battery should be a YTS12-BS?

I am currently charging the battery and thought I would just check the code on this, it’s ‘CTMX12-BS’

Is this going to make a difference!? The battery came in the bike from the dealer I bought from. Although second hand, surly they should be checking the bike is fitted with appropriate parts, and if my memory serves me rite, they said the bike was looked over by there ‘technition’ before handin* the bike over.
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Yamaha TZR125 x 3 Lifan LF125 14-F x 3 Jinlun 125 x 1 Honda CBR 600 F1 Honda Varadero 125cc I am now starting my Honda VFR400 NC30 Project (Still ongoing 27/02/18) Daelim Roadwin 125R

[WD Forte]

Check the stator and rectifier!
A good stator will usually keep a bike going even with a crap battery
(I have known a few rare exceptions of course)
but a good battery will run down pretty quickly with a bad stator
or reg rec or connections

First thing to get is a meter
then do tests
then determine fault/s
THEN squander yer dosh
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bikers smell of wee

[Rogerborg]

[Stuster]

Thanks again all, So! I gave the battery a charge for around 4 hours, after the charge I tested the battery and it was reading 12.6v

I have a real old charger, it’s seems to have done the trick tho. Checked the levels in the battery and they seeme good! So I connected the battery up and the bike fired up on the first press of the button...

I am still going to change the battery and check the bike into the garage, just to have it checked over!

Thanks again to you all for your input. Enjoy the rest of your weekend...


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Yamaha TZR125 x 3 Lifan LF125 14-F x 3 Jinlun 125 x 1 Honda CBR 600 F1 Honda Varadero 125cc I am now starting my Honda VFR400 NC30 Project (Still ongoing 27/02/18) Daelim Roadwin 125R

[BusterGonads]

[Rogerborg]

[WD Forte]

I dunno
you can lead a horse to water but you cant make it test the stator
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bikers smell of wee