Greedy Gobbeler

[redman]

Hi Guys
Could you please help with my greedy gobbling fazer  Went for a 5 hour ride yesterday bike statred with no problem had the heated grips and lights on full beam.  On way back stopped off at pub for a small roset jumped back on for the short blast home and she wouldnt start ended up having to jump her  got home 10 mins later and put her on the optimate charged her overnight read the hot poop on batterys and looked at other posts but i need more help please.  Went out today and bought a multimeter these are the results.
Battery ater 12 hours optimate 13.9v
Battery 5 hours later 12.9v
Battery on starting her up cranking over etc 10.8v
Battery on tickover 14.14v
Battery lights on full beam 12.8v and heated grips 12.25v
Battery lights on full beam and heated grips revving at 3000rpm 13.8v
So why did the battery???? ruin my day thanks in advance Karen .
 

[Captain Haddock]

If the battery has been on charge for a good period of time it's best to put a load across it before checking the voltage so you get to see what it recovers to, 10-20 seconds of full beam is probably enough to get rid of the surface charge before checking.
10.8V on cranking from a recently charged battery makes me think it's buggered, a fazer shouldn't take much to spin it over, sounds like the bike is putting the charge out ok but the battery just doesn't have the capacity anymore.
Sorry to be the harbinger of doom and all that ....

[ade the blade]

just a thought, my main bike used to have all the gear switched on ( grips, spots etc) and that would kill the battery dead if you didntt shut things off gradually a few miles from ya destination. spots alone would pull 110w ( 9+ amps) alone. bear in mind most bike generators pump out approx 350w at best, so you can see main bike leccies plus ancillaries really push the genny to its limits. just my ramblings. cheers Ade.
oh just an afterthought/, took spots off and never had battery probs since   hth

[redman]

Guys thanks for the replies so far, so Capn Haddock the alternator may be okay but the battery cannot hold the charge anymore so needs replacing does that mean when the Grips and lights are on that they draw more current than the alternator produces??.  Ive just measured the draw from battery when the ignition is on but the bike isnt running lights on main beam draw 0.8v  and the heated grips draw 0.3v  also put lights on full beam for 30 secs and battery still shows 12.7v .
Blade thanks for your reply also Kaz

[Captain Haddock]

Maybe the battery isn't that bad then, maybe worth trying Ade's approach of shutting things off giving time for the battery to recharge a bit, aim to stop at the top of a hill though just in case.

[bikemad62]

If i recall correctly the alternator has about 120 watts spare after running the bike lights and all (foxeye model) I think the older one has less cos of only having one headlight running. Hope this helps.