Is my battery on it's way out.....

[bikemad62]

Take the battery out of the bike. check the voltage. Leave it alone for half a day then go back take another voltage reading. If the second reading is signifcantly lower than the first then the battery is shorting out internally. best find a new one.

[Major Rant]

If the second reading is signifcantly lower than the first then the battery is shorting out internally.

Not true my friend ... 
 
If you charge a good battery to , say, 13.5V and then take it off charge it will still read about 13.5V. Over the next few hours it will decay exponentially to  well below 13V.
 
 

[mobile mouse]

Hi,


Sorry for the lateness of this extra info.
My multimeter was in error. The 9v PP3 battery in the multimeter needed replacing.
The multimeter WAS over reading.
After replacing with a new PP3 battery.
The bike battery read 12.9v.


I used GT85 and saturated the starter switch and cleaned up the switch and checked some of the connectors under the tank all look ok, sprayed them with ACF-50.


After a good charge on the optimate all seams fine touch wood.


In my opinion running the bike on my 8 mile each way commute with dipped beam and heated grips every day over a week.
Drained the battery enough to cause the symptoms.
Currently I have not needed to used the heated grips but still use the dipped beam and the battery seams to be ok.
with no difficulty starting.


We shall see over the summer if I have any re-occurrance.
Cheers for all your help.

[bikemad62]

The battery in question was not a good one and dropped from 12.5 to 10.1 in six hours the went to great battery heaven lol.
 

[Major Rant]

The battery in question was not a good one and dropped from 12.5 to 10.1 in six hours the went to great battery heaven lol.

That's pretty much what you'd expect from a "fairly shagged" battery with a single "very shagged"  cell (the most common failure mode for the OEM fit gel battery  ).
 
They end up as 10 volt batteries and they will just about start a bike on a nice warm day - otherwise you get the 'machine-gun' noise from under the seat and you're stuck.
I've killed 2 batteries that way in 12 years.