1) Battery life 2) idling

[MilesAway]

Hello,

A couple of quick questions for you guys.

1) How do you tell when your battery is near the end of its life. Since pulling the bike out (fully charged) the bike seems to be a little sluggish on the start when it's cold out. I know it's always been a little slower in the cold but seems to be a little worse than before. The rides I have been doing are long enough to charge and I did notice this right when it came out of storage. I'm worried that having not being as diligent in the past on keeping the charge up on the bike I may have hurt the battery over the winter. I also ran the battery pretty low in the winter, didn't give it a charge before starting it for a mid winter drive around the garage - it didn't start. Charged the battery at that time and started the next day. I have the gel Battery

2) Since my last tune up, the bike (R1150R) has been idling around 1000-950. I know this is off spec (which I think is 1100 +/-50). Called the dealer, service manager told me that if it wasn't stalling not to worry about it until my next service call. It's bugging me though, I've been keeping the idle at 1100 with the throttle when stopped. Any harm being done idling below 1k? Any way of adjusting the fast idle lever so that it pulls up RPM from there?

Thanks!

Justin

[BobFV1]

Justin -

You should be able to take the battery to any auto parts store and they can use a hydrometer to check the specific gravity and give you an indication of the battery's "health".

I will defer on the second question to my estemmed wrench-head boardmates.

Ride safe!

[MilesAway]

Hello Bob,

Interesting, I didn't realise that you could still do that with the gel batteries. I was under the impression that they were sealed.

[BobFV1]

Hello Bob,

Interesting, I didn't realise that you could still do that with the gel batteries. I was under the impression that they were sealed.

Oh - you have a gel battery? You can't do that on a gel battery, they are sealed :embarassed: . I now defer to someone who knows what they are talking about....

[arkline]

My 1150R was set to idle at something between 900 and 1000 for the longest time. After the recent service it now idles at a steady 1000 when warmed. No big deal in either situation.

[fganger]

Miles Away,
I would not be concerned about the idle, unless it bothers you. Many things can affect it on our machines. For example, I find that after I adjust my valves the idle is off what it was before, this is why mechanics usually adjust the fuel injection mixture/idle speed last during a tune-up/service.

One can take the battery out and put on a load meter to check it, many service stations or part stores have them. However, I’ve found that one way of checking the state of the battery is to turn on everything electrical on your machine; I normally do this at night after I warm up the bike. Shine the headlight on a wall and let it idle, then rev up the machine with a quick twist of the throttle, what you are looking at is the amount the light gets brighter, or not. A bike with a battery in good shape will get a small amount brighter as the revs go up. One with a battery on its last legs will get significantly brighter.

Okay, so how does one judge “small amount” or “significant” amount? Well I guess experience, but I’m not sure it’s that important. I guess if one was anal about it they could check their bike against another bike, which is quite new. The important thing to remember is that if the headlight is very dim and then gets very bright – you have problems.

I hope this helps, :)
Frank

[MilesAway]

Thanks Frank. I've noticed the change when I come off idle and it seems about like it was before so maybe I'm just being paranoid.

Cheers,

Justin

[jamming]

You can make a cheap battery tester for about 50 cents. go to Radio shack and buy a 20 OHM resister. Solder 2 leads on it about 6 inches long.
Hook it up in series with your multi-meters postive lead. Touch the neg terminal with the multi meter and the postive terminal of the battery with the lead with the resister in line. Your looking for voltage. anything less than 12.2 or so the battery is life limited. Less than 11 your pushing soon.
Roger

[DJ Down Under]

I have an even cheaper method.

I heard that if you wet your finger and put it on one of the terminals..and then put your tongue on the other terminal...it should tingle..just a little.

Just kidding...I'm sure a multi meter would be able to suss things out...just noticed Simons reply...looks like he knows his stuff.

DJ

[Sir Limpsalot]

Without knowing what tools and equipment are available to you it's difficult to advise, but if you have access to a multi-meter this is a great test.
Pull the fuel pump fuse so the engine can't start. Connect a multi-meter (set on "DC Volts") accross the terminals of the battery. (If your machine has the "boost start" connection, late '04 onwards, you can connect the pos(+) lead to that and the neg(-) lead to earth on the engine.) Note the reading, which should be between 12.2V and about 12.7V, then crank the engine for fifteen seconds. Don't guess it, time it on your watch, 15 secs is longer than you'd think.
A healthy battery will not loose more than 3 volts during this test, so if your starting voltage is (say) 12.4V, at the end of the 15 secs it should show 9.4V or better.
A really weak battery will often not manage to complete 15 seconds, the cranking rate slowing to a standstill after maybe half that time.
Good luck!
Si

[MilesAway]

Thanks very much for the tips guys. As always, I learned a lot. As I noted in a seperate post, I managed to go down this morning so the bike is at the dealer. Took a good bashing to the cylinder head, but I'm ok.

Cheers,

Justin

[philbytx]

Justin,
A Battery Tender device can certainly extend battery life.
If you do get a new battery, you can find genuine Battery Tenders on the Internet for about $39 (or cheaper float chargers for much less). You need to buy a BMW plug (powerlet) adapter and then all you do is plug it to the BMW outlet and to an AC source. The regular wet cell
battery on my 2003 (2002MY) 1150RT is still in great shape plus I have an 11 year old BMW 5 series with a 6 year old battery , which I also keep on a BT still in great shape. All I do is check the battery acid levels and the voltage with a DMM.

Sorry to hear about your get off...I had a doozy 2 months ago :icon_cry: and bashed my cylinder head cover (and the tupperware) on the RH side. These are certainly VERY tough bikes....