Now I have got the bike going, I have found another issue, might be connected, might not ..

The bike goes to turn over then stops dead as if the battery is dead, then a second later (with finger still on the starter button) it turns over slowly then sparks into life.

After it starts I find the time has been reset to 1am! Every time I start the bike up this happens ... ?

New battery needed or something a bit more complex .... ?

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"With square conduct, level steps, and upright intentions ..”

Have you tried doing this in the afternoon, rather than at 1am ?

I think Sir might be discovering that an Optimate a day keeps the battery salesman at bay ...

I know that it's been said before - but definitely check the earthing points and the state of the earth cable - had similar starting problems on my old Sportster - that was due to the earth cable breaking down. And a similar problem on my first Firebolt turned out to be a loose/bad earth connection.

Does anyone know if the optimate connection on the battery will fit any charger or just an optimate ... ?

I took a look at the battery a few eves ago and it looks like new, as do the leads and connections, other than that I have no idea how the bike works

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"With square conduct, level steps, and upright intentions ..”

There may be other chargers that will fit an optimate charger lead, but you will need to check the polarity before connecting up.

You can get the connectors to make up your own leads from Maplins, they are these, depending on whether you want male or female. So you could use another charger and make up an adaptor lead - or just change the connectors.

Sounds like a starter problem on old CX500's....as the earth connection breaks down.....might be work looking at how the starter motor is earthed etc.

Eric

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'09 XB12XT
'02 Beta Alp 200
'82 + '83 CX500 euroSports's
'83 CX650 Custom
Green "4 Legged" SUV

The problem is that your battery is flat. Just not quite flat enough to not start the bike.

Charge it up. Check the owner's handbook for the voltage it should be. it's either 12.6 or 12.7 off top of my head. 0.1v down is 50% charged though!

i get the same thing when its really cold and the battery gets a bit low, so could just be that it needs charging.

Given that you allowed the battery to go flat Ash i would guess that it could possibly be shagged now ...............borrow an optimate and leave that on for a day and see what happens then................if you're lucky a full and correct charge may be all it needs

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

Battery too flat and the optimate lead does fit other chargers

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Buell S1
Buell S3 (Topless for now)
Buell XB12S
Piaggio X8 400ie
Yamaha XTZ750 Super Tenere (x2)
Suzuki GSXR750WR
BSA B441VS
FJR1300

Cheers!

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"With square conduct, level steps, and upright intentions ..”

bit late here ,when my uly had problems over Christmas it was doing that, even with a car battery attached to the bike. It's an earth problem, on mine it was the wire across the top stabiliser mount on the engine side, but I cleaned up the battery to sub frame and sub frame to main frame.
I'm dissapointed to discover that my Buell although very technical in some ways has a lot of bad design points, like the battery to earth it should go straight to the engine.

Err no, IMO. Yes Maz I know but its not a perfect world. Its more a build problem and thats nothing new these days.