battery voltage

Had the same problem. New batterij - internal failure - see my problem :

http://hyperstrada.com/mechanical-technical/929-battery-failure.html

It's not a good idea to put a battery tender trickle charger on a brand new battery 1 year or 2 years old. The battery doesn't need it at that point and can negatively effect it's ability to maintain charge.

On my 'strada, I get voltage reading of like 15-16 volts on the external SAE connector. This causes problems when connecting 5v converters for devices because 5v converters are made to work with 12v and if something closer to 16v the converter doesn't work, like no voltage goes through. I think maybe only the cheap 5v converters do this because I've found certain kinds that work.

I hear about some light-weight batteries that shave like 6lbs. If I had to get a new battery, I'd try one of those. just saying.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using a quality trickle charger (Battery Tender) on a brand new lead-acid battery. It will extend the life of the standard battery immensely.

Lithium-ion batteries are a different story.

I have my Garmin cradle with charger connected straight to the battery and I wonder if that will drain the battery if the bike is turned off? It still charged with the ignition off though!

My mistake. A trickle charger is not the same as a float charger.

Trickle charger should not be used. It will overcharge the battery if left on too long.

A float charger is not a trickle charger. It should have intelligence to know when the battery is full to prevent overcharging the battery.

However, it gets more complicated. Lead acid batteries have a minimum charging rate and they are similar to lithium ion. As an aside, it's bad for a cell phone battery to charge the phone using usb on a laptop running on it's battery because the usb port won't charge it at a high enough rate. Maybe with usb 3.0 now it's different. I don't know.

This article explains lead acid batteries pretty well
Charging Information For Lead Acid Batteries ? Battery University

The article says charging lead acid battery is like "dancing on the head of a needle." On one hand, the battery wants to be fully charged to get maximum capacity and avoid sulfation on the negative plate; on the other hand, an over-saturated condition causes grid corrosion on the positive plate and induces gassing."

So, like you said, a nice, intelligent float charger that can read the state of the battery and adjust voltage as necessary should be okay to keep on the bike through the winter.

even pretty cheap trickle chargers poll and monitor the battery as it charges. I have a Battery Tender Junior. Once it senses about 80% capacity, it is indicated on the display. It stops passing voltage once fully charged and will enter maintenance trickle if the battery drops to about 80% again.

Not sure about LION cells, but the only way to keep a battery alive if it sits for extended period is with a tender. Regardless, I only use my tender when the bike has sat for a couple weeks...which isn't often. Mine has sat for over a month with no charge and fired right up.

gatdammit said:

Not sure about LION cells, but the only way to keep a battery alive if it sits for extended period is with a tender. Regardless, I only use my tender when the bike has sat for a couple weeks...which isn't often. Mine has sat for over a month with no charge and fired right up.

Click to expand...

I have the Shorai battery in mine, and it fired up with no issues after sitting for a little over a month.