BigBob said:
Please do not take this wrong, but why? If it starts I have enough!
::021::
Why? Well, several reasons, but here are some real world things. I ride endurance rallies. These can be anything from 12 hours to 11 days. During 24-36 hour rallies I ride all night. It's not uncommon to be using heated gear and aux lights at the same time in these conditions, even in summer at high altitudes or with rain. That can place a larger draw on the system than it can support, which will draw the battery down to the point where when you stop, it won't have enough juice to re-start. Now, in my case, I've figured out what the overhead available was and have chosen lights to stay under that so it's not a problem, but it is handy to know what's 'normal' and what's not, so you discover if there is a problem earlier, rather than later. With almost 90k on the bike, eventually something will go wrong.
The other day, just riding along, I noticed my voltage was higher than my 'normal'. The reason was because one headlight bulb was out. Because I know normal, and have experienced this before, I recognized right away that only one headlight was out and it wasn't a big deal. I swapped it out at the next stop with a spare bulb I carry. Problem identified, problem solved.
I fabbed up a simple bracket off my GPS mount and have a Datel voltmeter mounted there, on the right side. The GPS screen washes out the pic, so here are key on and key off pics. Not that sexy, but works for me. ;D
