bnschroder
2014 Super Tenere ES
I purchased a new Yuasa YTZ14S on July 5 on Amazon to be on the safe side for a MABDR round-trip since my original 2014 12S had already needed a little jump start twice on last year's Colorado trip.
The battery has a print on it that I interpreted as manufacturing date which dates it to late 2018, which made me slightly unhappy, but I guess they sit a little in every warehouse.
I had to top of the charge for a few hours and then installed it for the trip that started July 12.
During the trip the battery caused no problems and provided ~3500 trouble free miles during 10 days of riding, though I never felt it was any better than with my 12S. After my return I did one short trip to a restaurant and back to, which also was uneventful, but then last weekend, when I wanted to head out Friday night for a weekend of riding and camping: No start.
The engine barely turned over and didn't fire up. And I had actually put it on the trickle charger an hour earlier and it showed green when I unplugged it to fire up the bike.
So I pulled out my little Li-Ion jumper battery and the bike fired right up and I went off, hoping this was a fluke.
I have an Orange TPMS that also has a volt-meter setting so I checked the Voltage and it was charging at around 14.2V during the ride up to Suches, GA. I kept it on that setting and when I got gas after 60 minutes it started again without dropping significantly in voltage, but the engine was nice and hot.
The next morning, not so easy. It started, but laboriously, and the voltage dropped into the single digits. Once it was warm, it started every single time during the rest of Saturday, though never as smoothly as you would expect from the 14S based on what I have read here.
When I returned Saturday night, i measured the battery voltage at it showed 12.7V. I then checked it every night and every day the voltage would drop around 0.05V, which is probably already more than it should, considering the old 12S on my bench still reads 12.8V.
This morning, the battery read 12.4V and I tried to fire it up, and again, no go. The voltmeter showed that the battery dropped to around 5V while attempting to start it.
So - can I assume I got a bad battery or could this be anything else? I get no error code.
The battery has a print on it that I interpreted as manufacturing date which dates it to late 2018, which made me slightly unhappy, but I guess they sit a little in every warehouse.
I had to top of the charge for a few hours and then installed it for the trip that started July 12.
During the trip the battery caused no problems and provided ~3500 trouble free miles during 10 days of riding, though I never felt it was any better than with my 12S. After my return I did one short trip to a restaurant and back to, which also was uneventful, but then last weekend, when I wanted to head out Friday night for a weekend of riding and camping: No start.
The engine barely turned over and didn't fire up. And I had actually put it on the trickle charger an hour earlier and it showed green when I unplugged it to fire up the bike.
So I pulled out my little Li-Ion jumper battery and the bike fired right up and I went off, hoping this was a fluke.
I have an Orange TPMS that also has a volt-meter setting so I checked the Voltage and it was charging at around 14.2V during the ride up to Suches, GA. I kept it on that setting and when I got gas after 60 minutes it started again without dropping significantly in voltage, but the engine was nice and hot.
The next morning, not so easy. It started, but laboriously, and the voltage dropped into the single digits. Once it was warm, it started every single time during the rest of Saturday, though never as smoothly as you would expect from the 14S based on what I have read here.
When I returned Saturday night, i measured the battery voltage at it showed 12.7V. I then checked it every night and every day the voltage would drop around 0.05V, which is probably already more than it should, considering the old 12S on my bench still reads 12.8V.
This morning, the battery read 12.4V and I tried to fire it up, and again, no go. The voltmeter showed that the battery dropped to around 5V while attempting to start it.
So - can I assume I got a bad battery or could this be anything else? I get no error code.