My battery maintainer is plugged in and on 24/7
BATTERY MAINTAINERS: Secret to long battery life
One of the first hard lessons I learned after becoming the proud owner of my Suzuki DRZ 400S DualSport was to pay special attention to proper maintenance of this bike’s battery.
Although my Suzuki DualSport is meant to be a daily rider, I don’t ride it that way. (The family’s Dyna Glide Custom is the daily ride at our house)
My Suzuki DualSport is set up for playing in the dirt.
· I swapped out my machine’s stock DualSport tires for more aggressive street-legal knobby tires.
· Then I exchanged the stock rear sprocket for a larger one with more teeth to give my bike more explosive low-end torque.
· And finally, I re-jetted the carburetor to provide more horsepower.
All these modifications transformed my DualSport from a dual-purpose street machine into a street legal dirt bike. (Although I can still ride my Suzuki on the street, it really is no longer practical because of the changes I made.)
Now, when I want to play in the dirt, it’s at least a 2-hour drive (one way) to the nearest recreation area that allows Off-Highway Vehicles. Consequently, my Suzuki now sits idle for extended periods of time in my garage waiting for me to find the time and the friends with whom to go dirt bike riding.
And, therein lies my problem.
I learned the hard way that if your bike sits idle for an extended period of time, it’s battery will completely discharge and will most likely not accept a recharge. According to the friendly folks at
http://www.ebatteriestogo.com/
From now on, my DualSport battery is always plugged in and charging when I'm not riding,
The worst thing you can do to any battery is allowing your battery to go into a prolonged period of deep discharge. Often, the battery will fail to charge again. This usually happens during off-seasons when no riding occurs. You will extend your battery life by using a battery charger (sometimes called a battery maintainer) to keep your battery charged when you are not riding. Your battery life can be shortened dramatically by allowing the battery to deeply discharge.
Seasonal Riding ... If you are a seasonal rider, we recommend removing your battery from your Power Sport vehicle and storing the battery in a climate controlled environment, if possible. Your automatic battery charger should remain connected to your battery throughout the non-riding season which will keep your battery peaked and will not allow your battery to go into a deep discharge. Otherwise, put a full charge on your battery every 4 weeks during long periods of not riding.
REMEMBER, ALLOWING YOUR SEALED POWER SPORT BATTERY TO DEEPLY DISCHARGE SHORTENS THE LIFE OF THE BATTERY and WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY.
Out of necessity, I found eBatteriesToGo.com during an online search because my battery would not accept a recharge after it went dead. These folks are courteous, friendly and knowledgeable. They stock a large selection of powersport batteries and they even sell inexpensive battery maintainers.
So, if you’re in the market for a motorcycle battery like I was, I highly recommend that you check out eBatteriesToGo. Furthermore, if it’s not already too late, you should consider purchasing an inexpensive battery maintainer from these guys as well. When used properly, the battery maintainer will definitely extend the life of your motorcycle, ATV, personal watercraft or snowmobile battery ultimately paying for itself in the long run.
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