New Battery Questions

[fazersharp]

Just brought a new battery Yuasa YT12B-BS to replace my 26 year old OEM one.So now we are not allowed to fill them ourselves it has been filled in the factory and charged. But you are not supposed to let them discharge - not good for them so without a "charged on" date how do we know when it was last charged.The instructions say if below 12.4v then charge before use. I measured it at 12.84 but I am giving it a nice charge before putting on the bike, from then on it will be on an optimate type charger continually.   
Out of interest my OEM one was reading 13.1v when I took it off.So I imagine that it is shipped from Japan dry and somewhere in this country it is filled and charged.

[agricola]

Aye, funny things batteries.The old may well be reading 13.1, but after just one start, thats likely to go down to the low 12s. I recently replaced the battery on the motor car (in winter) because it sounded slower in turning over the motor. I charged it a couple of times and it read healthy on the voltmeter, but left overnight, the voltage slipped slowly downwards. From 13.4 at bedtime, down to 12.5 in the morning. I took it to County Batteries for drop testing, and it confirmed past its best. Drop testing is the sure way of testing battery condition. The fact we can't refill now is due to the crackpots that chuck battery acid in peoples faces

[fazersharp]

Aye, funny things batteries.The old may well be reading 13.1, but after just one start, thats likely to go down to the low 12s. I recently replaced the battery on the motor car (in winter) because it sounded slower in turning over the motor. I charged it a couple of times and it read healthy on the voltmeter, but left overnight, the voltage slipped slowly downwards. From 13.4 at bedtime, down to 12.5 in the morning. I took it to County Batteries for drop testing, and it confirmed past its best. Drop testing is the sure way of testing battery condition. The fact we can't refill now is due to the crackpots that chuck battery acid in peoples faces

Yes as per my post about it on the FZS600 section it does seem to of let me down. Didn't bother with drop testing it as its 26 years old.   

[fazersharp]

New battery now off the charger and reading 13.56v the charger was in its monitoring and keep mode. Put on bike and started and had a little ride and all seems well.