Hi all, was trawling through an american buell forum and came across this, instead of turning bike off with just the ignition switch use the kill switch and leave it off and then turn off ignition with key as normal, hey presto bike left for three weeks no trickle charger and started up right as rain, previous to that left for three weeks and battery had not enough juice to turn engine over, is this a bit obvious or is it a eureka moment

Just put the f**ker on trickle charge, the first time your battery was flat it was goosed, whats hard about plugging it in? I do it with 9 of em

Andy

well actually it can be very hard, putting it on trickle charge is only ok if you park the bike where there's a source of power, I have my bikes in a garage but theres no power, so to put it on trickle charge I have to try and get the bike through the back gate, up across the decking and leave the charger trailing outside, hoping it doesn't rain....

Do you use 9 separate Optimate type thingies? I've got a similar number of bikes on charge and I've split the leads, so one charger feeds two batteries. Seems to have worked well for a few years.
Having said that, a bank of Optimates keeps the workshop damp free

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If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.

Shame people don't read the forum more - I've posted this tip a number of times.

Only had a flat battery once on my 2008 R - and that was when I forgot to use the kill switch and it was laid up for a couple of weeks one winter.

I do use a battery tender though - I cycle it between the 3 bikes that are on the road.

I do, that said I wildly elaborated as the Lambretta has no Battery therefor needs no charging
I also run a dehumidifier all the time and dry my bikes before they get in there, bit anal but there you go.
I never thought to split them, my collection kind of sneeked up on me, seemingly causing me to just buy optimates without any thought other than to get one.

Andy

Or you could do as I do and run an extension lead from your kitchen to the garage, keeping your optimate in the dry.

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I started out with nothing and still got most of it left.

Or put the bike in the kitchen and keep everything warm and dry

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2001 X1 2009 1125CR 2006 Uly X3 2010 Uly a fully Maz'd S1 and a 1991 RS1200 Westwind.

I have to run a dehumidifier in my fekin house

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If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.

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FUBAR pilot

You only need two bikes in life-an S1 and a Multistrada!

Can't do that either, as my garage is across a road.... My point was more that not everyone can plug their bikes in....

Why not take the battery to the charger ??

I am going to give the kill switch tip a go ,
back in the day we never touched them cos if you did they tended to f@@k up ,
probably more to do with kill switch backfires though

This problem should have been cured with a change of clocks on most bikes ...If I'm correct it only applied to the very early 2008 models anyway and was sorted under warranty for most folks ....if you've got one that still does it maybe the original owner never took it back to complain

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2001 X1 2009 1125CR 2006 Uly X3 2010 Uly a fully Maz'd S1 and a 1991 RS1200 Westwind.

Alternatively, just ride the thing more often. No optimate required.