I have been having hard start issues on my 2015. I cannot get the bike to start today.
Through the winter, I did not ride but started the bike and let it warm up to operating temperature and let it idle for a short while after that. I did this several times.
Back in March, I started having hard start issues.
I replaced the battery with the recommended battery but did not find out about the higher capacity battery until I installed the original style battery.
The bike would reluctantly start. I then started keeping the bike on a Battery Tender Jr.
I have put some 500 miles on the bike since March and have gone through at least two tanks of gas.
Last week the bike stalled at a stop sign and would not start up. I walked the bike home and did some more research here.
I then found out about the WOT start procedure. It did not work.
Yesterday, I replaced the spark plugs. As the bike has 20,000 miles, I had been wanting to do this anyway. Upon inspection, the plugs were somewhat brown but certainly not terrible.
I tried the WOT technique and could not get the bike to start.
I then jumped the bike's battery with the original battery (which has been holding a charge for weeks) and the bike started with the WOT technique.
I let the bike idle until hot and then some. I shut the bike off and let it sit for 5 minutes. I then was able to re-start the bike without issue.
Today, I could not get the bike to start. I then tried the WOT technique and got nothing.
- I have always thought the bike was a very wimpy starter. In the past the bike always sneezed to life but it always seemed rather week. Is this the nature of this bike?
- After fully charging the battery with the Battery Tender Jr. light on green, I measured 12.7 volts. That seems a bit low to me. (Shouldn't it be slightly above 13 volts?) As I am typing this, I am wondering if the battery is low and, as a battery maintainer (as opposed to full charger) the Battery Tender Jr. does not have the capability of bring it up higher. Am I asking too much from the Battery Tender Jr.?
I am willing to buy a full scale battery charger but this Battery Tender Jr. has worked well for me on several different bikes. My habit of not riding much through the winter and periodically starting and idling until hot has worked for me on every bike I have owned since I started riding.
At this point, I feel like I need to address this an an electrical issue rather than a hard start issue. If external charging is not the issue, does this point to the bike's alternator or other electrical components ans being the source of the problem?
Do you think I am missing something here? Thanks for any other suggestions.
(As I am growing increasing frustrated with the bike I am also posting this on ADV Rider.)