My 2016 DVT Ducati has always suffered from a horrendous battery life meaning 2 weeks ish without driving will result in the bike not turning on anymore. I've replaced the battery already once after about 2 years, taken the bike out of the underground parking (as I thought the BikeTrac may kill the battery by constantly looking for signal) and now I'm constrained to using a trickle charger every time I'm not using it for barely 2 weeks. Do you guys have similar issues? Even fully charged it feels / sounds a bit like a 60s VW Beetle lackluster start which my dealer claims is due to it being a high displacement V2... Many thanks in advance
A Bike Trac unit is notorious for discharging a bike battery if left without a battery maintainer fitted. Mine is discharged after about 2 weeks, some say it takes longer but discharge it, it will. Andy
Mine is on a trickle charger all the time I have it at home. It's the best thing to do. Your dealer has a point about starting, they do turn over slowly, but if the battery is well charged they start OK. One thing to consider is fitting up-rated earth wires. The standard ones are not the best, and higher capacity/lower resistance aftermarket ones seem to give better/faster starting.
You could measure how much power the BikeTrac is using with a multimeter but I assume that's the problem. No issues with my '16 Enduro (no BikeTrac), starts slow, yes, but I think that's the nature of the beast
I have a Bike Trac on mine and I find it takes at least 4-6 weeks before I get a low battery warning from the app. My bike is also in a garage (not underground though). During the winter I use a Ducati trickle charger, but it’s ok the rest of the year.
Replaced my battery on my 2015 DVT ( had the bike from new ) around a month ago, always on an optimate in the garage when not being ridden, 7 years out of a bike battery, I’m not complaining.
Get a battery optimiser and a cheap uk plug timer, connect it up and when it's sat in the garage just set the timer to come on for say an hour per day, should keep the battery fully charged and resolve the issue. I work away for weeks at a time and when I have done this, it fires up first time every time...
If you have a good trickle charger, it does not need a timer to turn it on and off. Just plug it in and forget about it. It will turn itself on and off as needed. If its a quality one it will never over or undercharge the battery as it will read the current before switching on/off. Its all that is needed.
I have a tracker and Ducati alarm, both active/armed when in garage. Bike lasted about 8 weeks when I moved to a house where the garage (en-block) had no power. The tracker started to send alerts that the battery was getting low. Now have a solar Optimate on the garage roof, plugged in all the time, and all is well.
Just keep your bike on a trickle charger and forget about the battery. Change it when it's knackered.
My 1200 DVT has a lithium-ion (JMT I think) thing, fitted by the previous. I'll be interested to see how it manages when it's proper cold....
Thanks Andy, I had read that somewhere.... May get some Exact cables to make its life as easy as possible.
