I’ve been running my bike all throughout winter once a month up to full temp for +10 minutes and topping up the battery charge with a trickle charge until fully charged without any issues. Went away for an overnight stay and went to start the bike and it wouldn’t start. It cranked over but died almost immediately. Luckily a guy close to the hotel helped out and it eventually started after a lot of attempts. Bike starts first time again now I’m home. Do I have a duff battery or just unlucky with the cold and damp?
Could be battery, yes. They don’t like the cold. Particularly if they’re on their way out. Personally I wouldn’t bother running it up through the winter. Get some storage/preservation tips on YouTube if you’re not running it through the winter
It seems the likely problem, if you have a multi meter check the battery. Unless of course your bike isn’t charging the battery correctly?
I think the charging system is ok as it did a big run yesterday with multiple starts/stops without any issues. The cold soaking last night didn’t do the battery any favours.
Everything works up and till the point it doesn’t. it could have malfunctioned at any point during your ride out. It’s an easy enough check a multimeter is possibly £15 from Halftauds if you don’t own one and could be useful along the way.
Echoing the point of the lack of need to run the bike over winter. I too have a 1260 and have had it sit for months without a trickle charger over winter and even a whole summer! It won't hurt the bike, but it's just an additional step for something to go wrong. Put in a few drops of ethanol treatment in the tank, measure the battery (buy a multi meter) and let it sleep. I check my battery once every few months on my 1260, and just put it on trickle charge a few days before I decide to take it out if it's been a while. If its outside during storage, then get a proper cover for it.
Don't TFT screen thingumy bobs have a voltmeters built in? It'd make it so much easier to check the condition of the battery & charging system. I'm not entirely convinced by trickle chargers. I'd rather let the battery fall to 12.5v or less and then give it a real kicking with a full blown charge for a couple of hours.
Trickle chargers were only really useful for very old batteries, modern batteries, not so much. Unless you're storing for 12+ months or trying to revive an almost dead battery. As for the screen readout, as per the owners manual: Still, a multimeter is a must have bit of kit lying around. You only purchase it once unless you lose it.
Yep.. agree a multimeter is a deffo to have in the garage. I'm not au fait with TFT thingumy bobs so that battery info can only be displayed via the menus and can't be set to permanently display on the 'front' screen?
not sure on this model but 1198S and similar on board voltmeters can display up to 0•3 of a volt lower than actual, so meter every time for me. my generation on here will remember that voltmeters were rarely included as standard on a motor car, and even thought of as a joke because the subtle difference in readings even when running right, meant it was often too late as regards a warning that something was wrong. The ammeter - now you're talking, but more expensive to include, and had to be a quality instrument as was a safety related installation because it had to be wired "in line" with main charging circuit. I remember later cars added a shunt system, that cost even more, and they all slowly fizzled out.
