Oops… BMW 1150GS Adventure, forward planning for the battery

Nando654321 · Jan 2, 2023

Hi All

Hopefully a quick and easy one:

My trusty GS Adventure is used weekly on a long commute, with the battery being good as gold plus added within the last year. Last owner was very careful and had a trickle charger.

Over the Christmas period, I went on holiday (still am) and left the GSA alone without a trickle charger fitted. Silly as I have one but with all the family at my place plus then off to get a flight etc I totally forgot.

So on my return, the bike will have been around 1 month without being turned over engine wise… but at least whenever I walked past while at home I “shook it” to move the petrol around / checked for leaks but that was it.

I return on Sunday, have Monday for trying it out then on it for work on Tuesday.

Any suggestions on my MONDAY setup - ie just try to switch it on or charge the battery first or…?

My battery charger is a special motorbike one and does have the ability to get the battery drained and fully charged.

Never had to worry about battery life before hence the check.

I don’t think it’s a lithium one.

Thanks

Nando654321 · Jan 2, 2023

Sorry

Forgot to add - the bike has been used weekly long term by me, hence never been out of action for a whole month before!

JohnnyBoxer · Jan 2, 2023

Just put the trickle charger on, on the Monday for 6-8 hours and all will be fine
Mine don’t get used overwinter and just get on the charger for 6-8 hours (half a day) a month and all fine

Nando654321 · Jan 2, 2023

JohnnyBoxer said:
Just put the trickle charger on, on the Monday for 6-8 hours and all will be fine
Mine don’t get used overwinter and just get on the charger for 6-8 hours (half a day) a month and all fine

That’s great thanks JB, will stick it in the morning and try out late afternoon switch on

JohnnyBoxer · Jan 2, 2023

Nando654321 said:
That’s great thanks JB, will stick it in the morning and try out late afternoon switch on

That’ll do it, just to be sure for the Tuesday
Mine haven’t been ridden since end of November
Put them on this week consecutively and they only took 3-4 hours to charge to the green light status, so took them off charge and will repeat mid January

Steptoe · Jan 3, 2023

My GS stood for 6 weeks and started up a few days ago without any problem, and the battery is at least 3 years old. My 1150R!is often unused for a month and starts up ok …

Nando654321 · Jan 3, 2023

Steptoe said:
My GS stood for 6 weeks and started up a few days ago without any problem, and the battery is at least 3 years old. My 1150R!is often unused for a month and starts up ok …

Great, in that case I’ll ignore all the urban legends / old YouTube bs and just try start it up on Monday. Give it a bit of a run. Then after that, whether it starts or not, but it on the charger anyway and go from there. Will just treat it as I would my previous Jap bikes rather than thinking that I need to “nurse” it

Cheers

theoneandonly · Jan 4, 2023

and ?????

icedfusion · Jan 5, 2023

he is still trying to get it started!

Nando654321 · Jan 8, 2023

icedfusion said:
he is still trying to get it started!

Haha

Remember I’m only properly back home today!!!

Hence the checks being done tomorrow

theoneandonly · Jan 8, 2023

well get out there NOW !

Udders · Jan 9, 2023

It’s tomorrow now…….. come on!

Nando654321 · Jan 9, 2023

Udders said:
It’s tomorrow now…….. come on!

It’s dead as a dildo… which makes sense as my bike has an official BMW alarm so that will have eaten up the battery.

Turned the key, very low ABS ticking noise, turned key and nada

I put a lead into the charger area on the side of the engine and not got it working. Will go to the battery directly.

Will have to lift the tank to get trickle charging from the battery directly today

JohnnyBoxer · Jan 9, 2023

You didn’t tell us ….about an alarm

Nando654321 · Jan 9, 2023

JohnnyBoxer said:
You didn’t tell us ….about an alarm

Yeah sorry JB!

It’s an original BMW fitted alarm.

I don’t really need it I don’t think - is there an easy way to turn it off so that I don’t get battery issues again?

chablis · Jan 9, 2023

Ps, I believe you mean Dodo, the extinct flightless bird

Udders · Jan 9, 2023

chablis said:
Ps, I believe you mean Dodo, the extinct flightless bird

Yeah, I reckon!

Nando654321 · Jan 9, 2023

chablis said:
Ps, I believe you mean Dodo, the extinct flightless bird

Ahem, can I blame autocorrect?

Nando654321 · Jan 9, 2023

Nando654321 said:
It’s dead as a dildo… which makes sense as my bike has an official BMW alarm so that will have eaten up the battery.

Turned the key, very low ABS ticking noise, turned key and nada

I put a lead into the charger area on the side of the engine and not got it working. Will go to the battery directly.

Will have to lift the tank to get trickle charging from the battery directly today

Ok ok, finally sorted. Easy fix but I’m not a mechanic by nature so it all takes longer:

My trickle / multi charger has its own connection which annoyingly doesn’t link to the trickle charger cable already on the bike… real shame as it would have been nice to use what is already there.

So it was seat off, tank up and add my charger specific cable to the battery, which is an advantage as I can trickle charge whenever I want and if it ever goes dead again, easy to attach to my charger.

Also had a nice rummage round while the tank was up. Great to see a well look after internal, looks clean and no issues. So a worthwhile trip.

Bike is now battery charging nicely for tomorrow morning.

However, as heavy rain is expected tomorrow all day and I haven’t ridden for about a month… I may for the first time in months take the train… I just don’t feel like a 55 mile ride in heavy cold rain when I’m still recovering from a bout of flu.

But on a positive, bike will be ready for a weekend ride!!!

Thanks all

PS considering the bike’s age, I don’t really need the BMW alarm. I live in the countryside where we are lucky to have little crime. Is there an easy way to switch it all off?

Udders · Jan 10, 2023

Try not to damage the tank as you understeer into the first hedge you come across. I’ll buy it off you.

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