New battery voltage. ....

[Mike01]

Fitted a new battery to my Z1, I charged it before but did not need it. Anyway it only showed 12.3v when I connected it and after a few days is down to 12.1....
I have tested for a drain and there is nothing, tried a different meter and it shows the same.
There is no problem starting the bike and the battery was showing healthy on the charger.

Concerned that I will end up killing this new battery or is it normal for it to rest that low (I think not....)
Confused  :'(

[old son]

I understand batteries need to be above 12.2V to stay healthy. I can't think of a reason why a battery would be showing as charged on a charger but only reads 12.1V. Have a look at my thread on this subject. Maybe you have these same connector issues? It would not do any harm to clean the connector at least.

[nickodemon]

If the bike is not running then that reading is ok. Start the bike and then check the reading. It should be 13v +

[Mike01]

Cheers.
Running the volts are good, charged the battery off the bike and after a couple of hours back on the bike it's dropped a little. Possibly just because it's in a colder environment than the house  :lol
Will stop checking for a while, bikes not being used much so will check in a week or so rather than several times a day  :rolleyes

[Motopsycho87]

My new battery came today at 12.3. The bike struggled to start (beginning to think starter relay is shot), after a 30 minute ride it measured 12.83. Much better

[unfazed]

You are supposed to charge them before using them  :eek

[Motopsycho87]

Good thing we've got battery chargers that run on petrol and take us places

[PieEater]

You are supposed to charge them before using them  :eek

I think that depends on the make of battery, my Motobatt came with instructions specifically saying that the battery did not need charging. To be honest the more I read about them the more sceptical I am about battery chargers. From what I understand vehicle batteries are not designed to have a continuous charge going through them for extended periods or to be kept at maximum charge for any period of time and that by doing so you can damage the battery. This ties in with my own experience where batteries seemed to deteriorate much faster when I kept them on trickle charge over winter but since stopping this practice I've not had the problem. Also since retiring the charger from regular use I've found that the times that the battery hasn't been able to hold a charge are  because the battery was faulty and although the charger helped prolong the inevitable it didn't negate the fact that the battery needed replacing.