Alba said:Curious why you say 'hindered', bad experience of the system?
So it's plastics off tank off to get to the battery, will install the fixed charging kit.
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Boris said:But time for me to get on my high horse about optimates again.
Chuck them away... All they do is mask problems. If your battery needs an optimate connecting to your bike everytime you park up then it's faulty so change it. Even if you don't think it's faulty and you are just using the optimate to supposedly extend it's life then how will you ever know when it does go faulty? I'll tell you. The first you will know your battery is past its best will be when you are in the middle of a field or at a B&B after a night off the optimate.
I'd much rather change the battery every few years and go to bed with the confidence that the bike will start the next morning without relying on the optimate crutch. Save your £80 and put it towards replacement batteries you will probably never need.
If the battery's been sitting idle for a year, it's probably very unwell anyway, and while regular use of an Optimate may keep it going for a little longer, its days are numbered.Alba said:The bike has been idle for a year so the battery needs some TLC, plus if not using the battery over the winter is it not good practice to charge?
jasonbc said:I think everybody is missing the point of the optimate, yes they trickle charge and condition your battery but the main point is that with modern bikes having things stored in there memory, sleeping elctronics which are working with the bikes turned off like alarms immobilisers etc if you don't top them up when the bikes isn't being used when you come to use it the battery will be dead. A few years back about the only thing on a bike that drained power while the bike was oof was the clock or odometer. Also handy to have that extra bit of umph in the battery on a nice cold frosty winter morning before you set off
jasonbc said:if you buy a new battery you still need to charge it from the box, so either way you need a charger. My Varadero went 9 years on the original battery so that can't be bad
Lutin said:I would have thought that the battery's own self-discharge would be a greater drain than any OEM electronics - be it the bike's clock, speedo/odometer backup, whatever.
Lutin said:Gordon, you really have thought about this way too much.
Good analogy about the radiator though.